Aljamain Sterling thinks Merab Dvalishvili’s pace and cardio would be too much for Cory Sandhagen.
Following his win over Marlon Vera in this past Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 43 headliner in San Antonio, Sandhagen (17-4 MMA, 10-3 UFC) called out Dvalishvili, who welcomed the challenge.
Dvalishvili (16-4 MMA, 9-2 UFC) also is coming off a decision win over former bantamweight champion Petr Yan at UFC Fight Night 221. “The Machine” broke the record for most takedown attempts in that fight and Sterling expects him to overwhelm Sandhagen too.
“I think Round 1, Merab takes him down multiple times,” Sterling said on his YouTube channel. “The difference is keeping him down. But I think seeing how Sandhagen slowed down in Rounds 3, 4 and even 5, I can see how Merab can break him. I think that would be the difference in that type of matchup, that pace, that style and keeping Cory on his back foot.”
Based off what he saw in Sandhagen’s performance against Vera, Sterling thinks Dvalishvili has the style to prevail. Sterling holds a win over Sandhagen in 2020 in which he quickly got him down and submitted him in 88 seconds.
“You even notice with ‘Chito’ when Sandhagen was pressing forward and ‘Chito’s’ on his back foot, he couldn’t really kick the way that he wanted to – couldn’t let them things fly,” Sterling said. “But the moment that he let ‘Chito’ press forward and some of the Rounds 3, 4 and mostly 5, he was able to get off some of those kicks a little bit more and find more range and find a home for those strikes a little bit more often. But when you push a guy like that backward between Chito and Sandhagen, they’re forced to just use their boxing predominantly.
“That’s the difference. So keep them on the back foot, time those takedowns. And if you don’t get the takedowns, come up with strikes off the break and just mix it up. (If) you mix it up better, you’re usually going to win the fight – and whoever has the better gas tank, which we all know ‘The Machine’ is ‘The Machine” for a reason. I like that matchup. So if Cory’s feeling froggy, let’s go. We can line that one up, too. Let me do my job here with Henry in six weeks and we’ll see what happens with the division, and how everything’s playing out.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 43.
