Cory Sandhagen vs Umar Nurmagomedov to headline UFC FN 226 on August 5

There is another intriguing Fight Night main event to look forward to this summer, where a pair of bantamweight contenders in no. 4 ranked Cory Sandhagen (16-4) and no. 11 ranked Umar Nurmagomedov (16-0) headline UFC FN 226 opposing one another.

UFC Fight Night 226 is to go down on August 5, 2023, live from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.

Following a two-fight skid in 2021 that saw Sandhagen fall to 2-3 over his latest five appearances, he has since won his last two-straight against the likes of Song Yadong (TKO) and Marlon Vera (SD).

Yadong has gone 9-2-1 since joining the UFC roster, he’s 4-1 over his latest five appearances with three knockouts over the likes of former ROC champion Julio Arce, becoming the first man to ever knock Arce out, former WSOF champion Marlon Moraes, and most recently former LFA champion Ricky Simon earlier this year in April.

Then Vera came into his bout with Sandhagen on a four-fight win streak, having gone 10-2 over his last ten himself, the most recent a KO (head kick) victory over former WEC & UFC champion Dominick Cruz, as he became the first man to ever stop Cruz with strikes.

Those are the two men Sandhagen manhandled over his last two outings.

Then we have Umar Nurmagomedov, who’s run straight through everyone that’s ever been put in front of him.

Nurmagomedov came to the UFC with a record of 12-0 in early 2021 as the FMMAS & GF bantamweight champion, each title of which he defended a single time prior to joining. He has since gone 4-0 with three finishes over the likes of former M-1 champion Sergey Morozov (rear naked choke), Brian Kelleher (rear naked choke), former TKO champion Nate Maness (UD), and most recently former RFA champion Raoni Barcelos (KO) in January.

This is the 27-year-old Russian prodigy’s chance to show us what he’s really made of by finally taking on a top five contender. Who walks away from this bantamweight main event the victor?

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Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

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