This weekend, the UFC’s bantamweight division gets its moment to shine as Cory Sandhagen and Rob Font are set to take lumps out of each other in the main event of “UFC Nashville.” The fight, which Font is taking on short notice, will determine the next set of contenders with the winner having a rapid ascension to the title. Sandhagen, who was originally set to face Umar Nurmagomedov, looks to box out another contender and corner whomever the title holder may be come UFC 292. With Font possessing such a glaring and obvious weapon, it will be up to Sandhagen to disrupt the fight and go home with his third straight win. How does Sandhagen deal with the jab? Will Font be able to handle the diversity of striking coming back his way? These are the questions we will be answering in today’s issue of Beforemath.
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Dealing with Diversity: A Striker’s Conundrum
Font has had trouble in the past with dynamic strikers. Jose Aldo and Rafael Assuncao gave him fits, but in his last outing, Font managed to hammer his way through Adrian Yanez, a tricky striker in his own right. The first-round knockout was enough to elevate him into position to get the Sandhagen fight and a shot at contention, but Sandhagen is as tricky as Aldo and will present some problems that Font will have to either negate or solve.
Font’s main weapons are the jab and the cross. Outside of that, he has a good uppercut—something we will talk about later—and a hook or two, but by and large, that’s it. Font lives and dies by the jab. Fighters like Sergio Pettis and Ricky Simon had fits with Font’s jab. Others, namely Aldo and Marlon Vera, feasted on it. If Font is not careful, the jab will be his undoing against Sandhagen, who has the tools to punish him for his lack of creativity.
The Striking Diversity of Sandhagen
Sandhagen is one of bantamweight’s best gifts. While Sean O’Malley gets all the recognition for being a dynamic striker, it’s really Sandhagen who is the gift that keeps on giving, but at 31, Sandhagen is no spring chicken for a bantamweight and his time could be running out for a shot at an actual title. Note: We will be referencing stance a lot in this section. Sandhagen switches a lot, and it will be important to point out what happens from which stance.
The real threat for Font lies in preparation for who he was fighting at first. “UFC Nashville” was originally supposed to put Umar Nurmagomedov across the cage from Sandhagen. But that is not really quantifiable in an article and is just conjecture. What we can do is look at what Sandhagen has done in the past and build from there. Before we begin, I’d like to direct you to the previous Aftermath on Sandhagen’s win over Vera. It will expand on a lot of what we talk about today.
Knowing that everything Font does goes through the jab, Sandhagen’s game plan will revolve around taking that one weapon away from him and punishing Font for using it too often. With so much of Font’s offense based off the jab, taking it away will tilt the fight in Sandhagen’s favor. So how to do that? When combating the jab, the lead hand is always where the battle lies. While fighting the lead hand is primarily a southpaw versus orthodox thing, Sandhagen will do so out of mirrored and bladed stances. Controlling the lead hand obstructs the jab for Sandhagen and allows him to find and create openings.
In the end, Sandhagen’s process of elimination by domination over Vera and Song shows that it won’t be long until his name is called for a date with the champ, be it Sterling or O’Malley. He just needs to keep winning.