Preview: UFC 267 ‘Blachowicz vs. Teixeira’

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Interim UFC Bantamweight Championship

#1 BW | Petr Yan (15-2, 7-1 UFC) vs. #3 BW | Cory Sandhagen (14-3, 7-2 UFC)

ODDS: Yan (-225), Sandhagen (+185)

Even though this wound up as an interim title fight in about the worst way possible, it is hard to complain about such an excellent and well-matched bout. Yan had about as seamless a run up the bantamweight ladder as possible, living up to both his reputation as a violence king and one of the best 135-pound fighters in the world. Within a year of his UFC debut in 2018, “No Mercy” had already put together five wins, including victories over John Dodson and Jimmie Rivera that had the Russian firmly in title contention. After what amounted to a showcase win over Urijah Faber to cap 2019, Yan also clearly had the UFC’s favor. Once Henry Cejudo vacated the bantamweight strap, it was Yan who got the call to face Jose Aldo for the interim title; it was the top choice out of a bunch of excellent options. Aldo put in a game effort against Yan but fell victim to what is quickly becoming a vintage Yan performance. After taking a round or two to feel out his opponent, Yan eventually starts upping the pace and initiative until he is an absolute buzzsaw of violence to which his counterpart can no longer stand up. That took until the championship rounds against Aldo and looked set to happen a bit quicker in Yan’s first title defense against Aljamain Sterling in March. Sterling came in with a smart game plan, throwing out volume and mixing in some clinch work and wrestling to try and frustrate Yan and prevent him from ramping up. Unfortunately for Sterling, he did so at a pace that he could not maintain himself. Once again, as time went on, Yan found himself clearly taking over the fight, even showing off a wrestling advantage in the later rounds. Then Yan made one of the dumber mistakes in UFC history. It remains unclear exactly what communication went on between Yan and his corner, but the end result was that he wound up knocking Sterling silly with a clearly illegal knee while the Serra-Longo Fight Team standout was a grounded opponent, handing him both the victory and the bantamweight title via disqualification. The whole situation has been messy since, with Sterling facing a backlash while being considered an undeserving champ. The hope was that it would be resolved with a rematch here, but with Sterling unable to fight due to long-standing neck issues, Sandhagen steps in for a massive opportunity.

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When Sterling was ruled out, Sandhagen was not on the radar as a replacement for an interim title fight, if only because he was coming off a controversial split decision loss to T.J. Dillashaw in July. However, as the UFC went down the list of contenders, Sandhagen emerged as the best option. Rob Font was recovering from COVID-19 and Dillashaw was out due to knee surgery, so with many having felt Sandhagen won his last fight, the call was made for him to step in for what should be an excellent encounter. Sandhagen has had a similarly rapid ascent to Yan, debuting a few months prior, albeit with none of the hype. While Yan had been on the radar for seemingly years as a potential future UFC champion, Sandhagen was quietly added to a January 2018 card during fight week simply to fill out the lineup. After a few impressive wins, the UFC decided to start matching Sandhagen quite aggressively, which made it a surprise when he was able to hold his own every step of the way. Much more well-regarded prospects at the time fell short to the likes of John Lineker or Raphael Assuncao, and Sandhagen managed to beat both over the course of just four months in 2019. Since Sandhagen had proven himself able to hang at a title-contender level, he has clearly been someone the UFC rightfully sees worth getting behind. Beyond his potential as a fighter, his combination of a gigantic frame and high-paced, offense-first approach makes him guaranteed excitement every time he steps into the cage. The highs have been quite high—his wheel kick finish of Marlon Moraes and flying knee knockout of Frankie Edgar both rank among the best highlights of the UFC’s pandemic era—but the Dillashaw loss, as well as a quick 2020 submission defeat to Sterling, show some flaws in Sandhagen’s game. His tendency to get wild with his striking and his grappling leaves him prone to getting outwrestled or vulnerable to submissions. Even so, Sandhagen provides plenty of action at a high level, so it is difficult to complain about him getting the shot.

This should be excellent. Yan is a joy to watch, even if there are some clear gaps—they are not even true flaws—in his approach that opponents can exploit. Again, the Russian is a slow starter, willing to throw out some volume but mostly as a way to get reads that will eventually lead to counters and high-paced violence once he starts rolling downhill. Aldo managed to have success in that back-and-forth exchange before Yan started turning up the pressure; and again, Sterling seemed to legitimately throw Yan off with his size and constant aggression before tiring himself out. That is where this gets interesting. Sterling had to adjust and get out of his comfort zone and adopt that approach, which likely contributed to his gassing. Sandhagen does a lot of similar things by default. It is not difficult to see Sandhagen finding early success or even a finish with some sort of unorthodox combination or flying knee that catches Yan cold and off-guard. Even if Sandhagen does not score an early finish, his commitment to action does figure to slow Yan’s progression to his final form over the course of five rounds. Yan’s style is built around getting his reads, and Sandhagen simply gives his opponents a lot to read. It would not be a shock to see Sandhagen get the better of this as a pure striking match, but the secret weapon for Yan—which, given his prowess as a striker, seems almost unfair—is that he is also a strong wrestler and even got the best of Sterling at a lot of points during their fight. Yan is usually the one that opponents try to neutralize and slow down, but he likely has the option and ability to turn things around here. If Sandhagen provides any sort of frustration with his unorthodox volume, he seems just as likely to try some sort of low-percentage strike, likely a spinning one, that will give Yan an opportunity to push him back to the cage and then go to work. There may not be much in the way of Yan being able to seize control, thanks to Sandhagen’s size and aggression in his grappling game, but it should be a constant option to reset the terms of the fight and try to get things rolling in the way that the Russian has done so many times before. This might be the toughest test for the former champ in this division, but the pick is Yan via decision.

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