Cory Sandhagen open to rematching Petr Yan in a No. 1 contender fight: “I was winning that fight”

Cory Sandhagen believes he deserves the next title shot, but is open to taking another fight.

Sandhagen scored a second-round stoppage win over Deiveson Figueiredo on Saturday at UFC Des Moines. It got him back in the win column, and after the victory, he called for a title shot.

Yet, Petr Yan, who has a win over Sandhagen and is ranked ahead of him, claimed he should face the winner of Merab Dvalishvili vs Sean O’Malley. So, with that, Sandhagen says he’s open to fighting Yan again as he has confidence he’d win that fight.

“Yeah, sure, I’m not going to commit to that until after the title fight. I’m not opposed to fighting Yan, I’d love to fight Yan. Especially because he likes spreading the narrative like remember what happened last time we fought,” Cory Sandhagen said to Ariel Helwani. “Like, Yan, dude, I took that on four weeks’ notice, on your side of the country, in a fight I only had a month to get ready for, and he’s a really good fighter. You need more time.

“And not to mention, I was winning that fight all the way up until I got hit with like that crazy spinny, weird shit that he hit me with that I’ll never let him hit me with again,” Sandhagen added. “Let’s not act like that was like a one-sided fight because I was winning that fight until I got dropped at the end of the 3rd. If it means fighting Yan again, then for sure. But I mean, the title should be next for me.”