Cory Sandhagen talks Petr Yan bout at UFC 267, pitches solutions to MMA scoring

The UFC interim bantamweight championship will be on the line when Cory Sandhagen faces former champion Petr Yan on Oct. 30 in Abu Dhabi. Sandhagen tells Yahoo Sports' Kevin Iole the fight is to prove who is the best bantamweight despite Aljamain Sterling being the current title holder in the division.

Video Transcript

KEVIN IOLE: Hey, folks. I am Kevin Iole and UFC 267 is coming up on Saturday from Abu Dhabi. My guest right now is in the co-main event of that fight. Might steal the show. Going to be an unbelievable fight for the interim bantamweight championship. Petr Yan against, of course, Cory "The Sandman" Sandhagen. Cory, how are you doing, my friend?

CORY SANDHAGEN: I'm good. How are you?

KEVIN IOLE: I'm doing awesome. Let's start here. It seems like both 35 and 45 are so competitive that you can throw a blanket over maybe four, five, six guys and kind of mix and match who's the best on any given night. So having said that, do you look at this as, quote, unquote, the real championship given the circumstances of how Petr lost the title and how you lost to TJ Dillashaw last time out?

CORY SANDHAGEN: Sure. I think certainly there is-- to my little of knowledge of what the fans are talking about and what's happening on social media is that people see Petr Yan as the champ. And they see him as the best guy in the division right now. And I definitely think that that's the way that people view him. So I think that I go in there, I take him out, I think that then I will receive that blessing from the fans that I am also the-- or I am the best in the division instead.

KEVIN IOLE: What was your take on the way his fight with Sterling ended? I mean, obviously, it was a blatant foul and it had to be called. But the disqualification-- what did you think?

CORY SANDHAGEN: I thought it was a really-- I mean, it was a huge mistake. You can't make that mistake in a championship fight like that. It doesn't really get too much more flagrant than that in my opinion. I think that Sterling didn't handle it the best either, just playing the heel role afterwards and all of that. But yeah, I thought it was really silly, didn't need to happen. And he definitely lived with the consequence because he didn't get to go home with the belt and Sterling did.

KEVIN IOLE: Sure. I think Yan is a guy that really has kind of improved a lot over the last few years. And I thought he really kind of took a step up when he went from after beating Jimmie Rivera to Urijah Favor and kind of dominated Favor and then really put a beating on Jose Aldo. I mean, has he been a guy on your radar for a while? And did you see the progression of him coming in terms of getting better and better each time out?

CORY SANDHAGEN: Yeah, I think me and him definitely had really similar paths in the career up until I lost to Sterling. I think I definitely had a little bit of a harder road to get to where I am versus his road, but that's not to take away from the fact that yeah, he did-- or he was beating Sterling until that fight went the way that it did and that he did beat a really tough Aldo. So I definitely think Petr Yan is a very good fighter. And I've kind of known that for a long time. And I figured that me and him are going to cross paths at one point because I think we got into the UFC around the same time. We were kind of growing at the same time. And then I lost to Sterling, he beat Favor. And then he got the title shot and I didn't.

KEVIN IOLE: And you say, I lost to this guy, whatever. You're coming off a loss to TJ Dillashaw, but to me, that was one of the best fights of the year. And it was a fight that-- it's a coin flip who wins that fight, right? I mean, depending on what you like in the fight and maybe even where you were seated when you're judging the fight because of how things happen in the fight. Was it mentally difficult to accept the fact that you didn't get your hand raised in that fight given the heart you poured out in the cage that night?

CORY SANDHAGEN: Yeah, it certainly was. I think that there's certainly an argument that TJ could have won 3-2, and I think there's certainly an argument that I could have won 3-2. And I think to kind of dispute that would be a little bit silly, but I think that what isn't disputable is that one person walked out of the cage very beat up and the other person walked out of the cage very not beat up. And so that's a little bit confusing. It kind of makes you raise some questions about, hey, are we judging these things right if that is the case? Are we putting value on things that don't really do a lot of damage just because of kind of old ways of thinking and stuff like that?

And sometimes makes it an easier pill to swallow. And then it doesn't on other days. And that's kind of the process of losing and the mental exhaustion that you kind of go through after having a tough loss that was really close is not fun. But I think that from what I learned in that fight and the skills and experience that I'll be able to gain from that one fight I think is going to help me tremendously in this next one. So speaking about two or three months later, it's a good thing that it happened. But through that process, it doesn't feel like that. But I think I'll get my shot to scratch that L off my record eventually.

KEVIN IOLE: Let's do a little swerve really quick because you're a really smart guy. You understand the sport and you understand the world and everything. So the 10 point must system comes under attack a lot of times. And I understand why. But if we say, for argument, that TJ Dillashaw won three rounds 51 to 49 and you won two rounds 60 to 40, that gets to where your damage is and where his round winning is. What is a better solution? Because do you say just score the fight as a whole? Or what would be a better solution and a fairer solution than the 10 point must?

CORY SANDHAGEN: I think more than anything, I think it's-- well, one, I've played with a few ideas. I really like the idea of some type of shot clock so that things are a little bit less ambiguous as far as from a referee's position where I think that if a guy is just going to hold you and not do too much, there should be a shot clock. If someone's pinning you against the cage and not doing any damage to you, hey, hit the shot clock. You have 20 seconds to take the guy down or we break you.

And so not to veer off too far, but I think that honestly the main issue is what's being valued and what isn't being valued. I think that damage needs to reign supreme. When I'm told that damage is the thing that scores the highest, I train and I create a style and a game that is different than everyone else's because I have to do it that way just because I'm a different type of body. I'm a different type of athlete than a lot of these guys that are in the division.

So when that gets told to me, it's like when I'm training, everything is, can I do damage from here? Can I not take damage from here? And it becomes very confusing when I need to start playing to the aesthetics of things. And it becomes confusing when I want to do things that might seem out of the box and they're viewed poorly because people aren't really understanding what I'm doing. But I think that the way that you just counteract all of that is you value damage the highest and you keep it that. And maybe there should be some form of way of carrying over a score from a previous round because I mean you could get your ass whipped in one round and then squeak out two more rounds and you can win a fight. And something about that feels very wrong.

So I also thought about maybe the judges should score the rounds comparatively versus did this person win this one, did they not win this one where it's like, OK, I blow out TJ in round two. Should they score round three based off of how well TJ was able to lessen that gap? And then that round to that person. So I don't know, man. It's really confusing. I think it's honestly going to take a really long time. I think open scoring is a really good idea, too. And that's where the sport is right now, man. It's still kind of a little bit of the wild, wild west sometimes. And I think that we're moving slow, like in everything, towards progress. But that's the way that progress gets made.

KEVIN IOLE: Not that anybody cares about my opinion when we have you here, but I think it's just all offense. I mean, it's an offensive sport, right? And let's score offense. Don't score defense. Defense is the benefit to you for not getting hit, not getting beaten up, not getting cut. But it's not in terms of scoring. That's how I look at it. Just all offense and look at it from that way then. Let's move on because nobody gives a shit what I think.

CORY SANDHAGEN: I kind of agree with you. I think that you could be the best in the world at defense in basketball, but if you can't score a point, then you aren't going to win that game. So yeah, man. And then defense becomes important when both guys are fairly good at offense. And yeah, I agree with you, man. There's a lot of ways that we need to rewrite this thing I think.

KEVIN IOLE: No doubt. When we look at this fight, I think this has to be an offensive fight. I mean, this has to be a fireworks fight with the kind of strikers you guys are and everything. Slightly different styles, but I mean, you guys both have the power to end the fight. You both bring it. You both do a lot of damage. I wonder what you think your advantage is in terms of length and reach. I think you're three or four inches taller than him and maybe three or four inches in reach. What impact is that going to have in this fight do you believe?

CORY SANDHAGEN: I think it has a lot of advantages, certainly in striking. If I can stand in a space where you can't hit me but I can hit you, that's obviously, of course, a huge advantage. So I get a lot of questions more about the length than I think I do about my ability to use my feet to keep myself in safe spaces. I mean, length isn't good for anything if I can't move my feet in and out of spaces.

So I think that the footwork is going to make a big difference in this fight and I think that it's-- I feel like I'm playing the same song every time I kind of answer my advantages in every fight because I am a different type of athlete and I do things a little bit differently because I'm a longer, rangier guy. And I definitely think that I play that game very, very well. And I've learned to use it very, very well.

I've talked to a lot of guys about their footwork and I always think of two guys for great footwork in MMA, Dominick Cruz, of course, and then boxing, Floyd Mayweather was probably the best that I've ever seen at using their feet. And you can't minimize that whatsoever. In this fight, I mean, do you see this kind of being one way or the other, having it be a finish given the styles that you both have. I mean, do you see any way that we're going to be talking after this fight what the judges saw. Because I look at it, I go, Petr Yan doesn't seem to be a guy-- if he can get in there and trade with you, he's going to do it. And you're obviously an offensive fighter. This looks like, if it was a football game, it might be a 45-41 type game.

CORY SANDHAGEN: Yeah-- what was your question on that one then?

KEVIN IOLE: I'm saying, do you see any way that this is not a finish?

CORY SANDHAGEN: No, I think it's fighting, man. Anything can go. I think, honestly, I think Yan is-- while both of us are very good offensively, I think that the reason we're able to do that is because our defense is very good. So I think Yan protects himself really well and I protect myself really well. We do it in different ways, but that's kind of what makes this fight really interesting and is going to make the fight really exciting is that we can both open up because we're both so defensively sound. And I think, I guess, if it does end, it's just going to be whoever makes the first mistake.

KEVIN IOLE: Let's wrap it up here. I know you're busy and I appreciate your time so much. If you win this thing, you're the interim champion. So that's going to put you into a title shot with the actual champion. And I think of this, this is kind of like the halcyon days of your career for a sense. You're fighting for a championship where you make the most amount of money, you're getting the most amount of eyeballs on you and everything. And do you feel like the pressure of trying to live up to all that-- because right now you're at the very top of the heap, and does that put any added pressure on you because of all the burdens and responsibilities that it brings?

CORY SANDHAGEN: Yeah, so I've thought about that. I think that when you're where I am, sometimes the consequences of winning can sometimes be scarier than the consequences of losing. And yeah, I've given some time to that. Honestly, man, I just keep myself in my own world and I make sure that I'm focused on my performance. And that's all that I try to make this thing about. it's not really about fighting Yan to me. It's not really about winning gold to me. It's about me finding my ultimate performance. And if I go out and do my ultimate performance, then I believe I will walk out of there a champion.

KEVIN IOLE: Well, we wish you the best of luck. Thank you. Always fun to watch, always fun to talk to. We'll look forward to seeing the fight on Saturday from Abu Dhabi. Cory Sandhagen, all the best to you, my friend.

CORY SANDHAGEN: Cool. You too, man. Have a good day.