Cory Sandhagen left UFC 329 with both a unanimous decision loss and a significant leg injury after his rematch with Mario Bautista.
Bautista attempted a Suloev stretch and transitioned to a kneebar near the end of the first round, leaving Sandhagen visibly limping between rounds. All three judges scored the fight 29-28 for Bautista.
Sandhagen said he is “getting MRI this week” to assess the damage from the submission attempt. “Pretty sure the knee bar tore my hamstring in the first (getting MRI this week). It kept locking out weird if I did certain things. So that kind of messed up my game plan,” he said.
Reflecting on the result, Sandhagen added, “Frickin bummer man. Losing in fighting is the most embarrassing thing ever. Sucks,” while also crediting his opponent: “Congrats to Mario. He was well prepared. 1st was close but he won it with that knee bar. 2nd, I won (surprisingly cause leg was jacked). 3rd, I wanted to have the same round as before but got dropped. Gotta fight near perfect to win at the top. Something I need to get better at.”
The bout at UFC 329 was a rematch of their 2019 meeting, when Bautista lost to Sandhagen in his UFC debut on short notice. Sandhagen has now gone 1-3 in his past four fights, with decision losses to Merab Dvalishvili, Umar Nurmagomedov, and Bautista at UFC 329.
