Cory Sandhagen is siding with Sean O'Malley ahead of the bantamweight’s upcoming showdown with Aiemann Zahabi at UFC Freedom 250 on June 14 at the White House in Washington D.C.
O'Malley, 19-3 in MMA and 11-3 in the UFC, is set to meet Zahabi, who holds a 14-2 MMA record and is 8-2 in the UFC. Sandhagen revealed he had been eyeing both men as potential opponents before the matchup was made.
"I think O'Malley will almost certainly win, but Zahabi definitely (has a chance). I've watched a lot of Zahabi's fights just because in my head I was like, 'Zahabi is not matched up, so maybe they'll do me and Zahabi,'" Sandhagen said.
After studying Zahabi, Sandhagen expects the Canadian to pose real problems, even while picking O'Malley to prevail. "So I watched a bunch of Zahabi, and I think he's going to be a harder problem to solve than what Sean gives credit for. But also, Sean's very, very good."
Sandhagen broke down the stylistic clash further: "I think (O'Malley is) a lot better than all of the other guys that Zahabi's fought. I think that Sean will win just because he's better than him, but Zahabi is going to be a tricky problem to solve. Sean struggles with that sometimes, with trying to find his perfect shot. Sometimes he can be a little bit too much of a perfectionist, and I think that works against him so, he'll have to deal with that. But even with that, I think that he'll win."
Sandhagen himself is booked to rematch Mario Bautista at UFC 329 on July 11 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. He enters with an 18-6 MMA record and 11-5 in the UFC, while Bautista sits at 17-3 in MMA and 11-3 in the UFC.
