Cory Sandhagen admits it’s hard to gauge which version of T.J. Dillashaw he’ll get, but he won’t risk underestimating him.
Sandhagen (14-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC) meets former two-time bantamweight champion Dillashaw (16-4 MMA, 12-4 UFC) in the main event of UFC on ESPN 24 on May 8 in what is projected to be a No. 1 contender fight.
Dillashaw will return after serving a two-year U.S. Anti-Doping Agency suspension for a positive EPO test in January 2019. During that time off, 35-year-old Dillashaw elected to undergo double shoulder surgery and will have been away from the cage for 28 months when he makes the walk in May.
But despite the long layoff and time away from training, Sandhagen says he can’t make the mistake of assuming that Dillashaw will be a lesser fighter than he was when he ruled the 135-pound division.
“The guy’s been out for two-and-a-half years almost now, so who knows what he’s been doing in that time?” Sandhagen told MMA Junkie. “I know that he had a couple of shoulder surgeries, which put him out for a little bit, and I know that I’ve been working really hard in those two years. I don’t really know what he’s been doing, but yeah, I suppose that’s probably the narrative that T.J. is probably gonna come back as a not-as-great version of T.J., but that’s just a narrative that I’m not gonna buy into. I’m gonna buy into the narrative which is gonna keep me safer, which is T.J. is gonna come back a better T.J.”
He continued, “If he was on EPO or whatever type of drugs he was on for his entire career and he’s off of them, then that’s 100 percent gonna play a factor. Am I banking on that? Absolutely not. But if that is the case, which I have no idea if that’s the case or not, then, yeah, he’s probably not gonna be coming back the same guy.”
Though he may not know which version of Dillashaw he’ll get, Sandhagen is certainly familiar with him. The pair were training partners years ago when Dillashaw left Team Alpha Male for Team Elevation and have spent a significant amount of time with each other on the mats.
In recent interviews, Sandhagen commented on Dillashaw’s failed drug test, as well as some of their sparring sessions, which Dillashaw didn’t take too kindly too.
“I don’t really know what I said exactly that made him call me a douchebag,” Sandhagen said. “I mean, I definitely made a comment about the steroid usage, but yeah man, you shouldn’t be using steroids. I don’t think anyone is gonna be on board or on your side for that, whether we trained together or not. Then I said I was doing good against him when we were in sparring, which is also the truth, too. I guess sometimes saying the truth makes you a bit of a douchebag also. I can agree with that, but yeah. I don’t know. I’ll let as much bad blood as he wants to create, he can create on his own. To me, this thing is about winning a world championship. He’s in the way, and that’s about it.”
Since getting submitted by Aljamain Sterling in June, Sandhagen has completely turned a corner. He is coming off back-to-back highlight-reel knockouts over Marlon Moraes and Frankie Edgar and hopes he can continue showing off the new wrinkles in his game.
“I’m working on a lot of really cool stuff right now,” Sandhagen said. “I think my entire game, I don’t really know when it’s been happening, maybe it’s been during this quarantine time or maybe it’s just because of the really high-level guys that I’ve had to be fighting in the last year or two, but I think my game has really evolved. Certainly my mental game has evolved big time. I go in with a much better mindset, and I’ve really hammered down the performance part of fighting. It’s just a skill on it’s own, so I’m excited about all of those things, but I’m also excited about the technical things I’ve been working on.
“If the fight does last longer than 30 seconds than may last one then I think we’ll be able to see some really cool, new technical things that I’ve been working on that is different than a lot of the people that are doing it in the sport, and I like to be the guy coming up with all the new stuff, and I think that’s who I am. Hopefully I don’t get to show it because I knock him out really quickly, but if I do, then that’s cool with me too.”
Cory Sandhagen ‘not gonna buy into’ T.J. Dillashaw being worse post-steroids suspension