Cory Sandhagen knows that a lot of fans are counting him out of his title fight against Merab Dvalishvili, so he’s having a bit of fun with it.
Sandhagen challenges Dvalishvili for the bantamweight championship in the co-main event of Saturday’s UFC 320 card at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. To go along with the narrative of Dvalishvili being a heavy favorite, and being an unstoppable champion, Sandhagen has done some internet skits with an internet fan — played by Sandhagen — explaining all of the reasons
the narrative suggests he’ll lose to Dvalishvili.
An example of the character can be seen below.
“I always thought that I had a really quirky sense of humor, it’s really dry, too,” Sandhagen told MMA Fighting. “For whatever reason, I don’t make a lot of facial expressions, and so it’s really hard to pick up sometimes when I’m joking and when I’m not, I always was just like, ‘Dude, you’re too weird to try to be funny, so, like, just don’t try it.
“But then I was like, f*ck it. People are either going to get it or they’re not going to get it, so I’m just going to do my own version of being funny and doing silly skits and stuff. And yeah, it seems like people like them. I know that they’re probably pretty weird for some people, but I think that they’re really funny and I guess that’s kind of what matters.”
Dvalishvili has won 13 straight fights, including his title win at UFC 306 over Sean O’Malley in September 2024, along with two successful title defenses already in 2025. Part of Dvalishvili’s impressive résumé includes wins over Petr Yan and Umar Nurmagomedov, who coincidentally are the last two fighters to defeat Sandhagen.
Despite playing the troll character, Sandhagen says it’s more fun for himself as opposed to clapping back at MMA fans who hit him up on social media with negativity.
“I’m kind of just leaning into that just because I know the narrative around this,” Sandhaden explained. “I mean, Merab’s beaten guys that I haven’t beaten. Like he beat Umar and he beat Yan, and so I’m assuming that Merab is likely gonna be the favorite in this fight. I’m pretty sure that he is and, yeah. I’m kind of just leaning into that.
“I honestly don’t read most comments. Every once in a while, I’ll slip up and f*ck up and accidentally do it. But for the most part, I don’t. So I don’t really know what people are saying, but I’m assuming that that’s what it is. But even if that isn’t the case, it’s just funny to think about like that being the guy on the other side of the screen, and that’s who it is because if you’re saying mean stuff on the internet, you’re a giant loser, and that’s probably what you actually look like anyways.”
Sandhagen has wanted this matchup with Dvalishvili for quite some time. While a lot of the fighters in the division didn’t seem thrilled for that challenge, Sandhagen called for it multiple times.
No matter how fans feel about the challenger’s chances in the bout against Dvalishvili, Sandhagen appreciates the passion of most of the MMA fan base.
“I actually really appreciate them,” Sandhagen said. “I think that fandom is weird. I’ve never been a fan of too many things. I don’t think celebrities are cool, I don’t think that I’m above anyone or below anyone in life, so fandom’s always been really weird to me. But as many horrible, weird, mean people that there are on the internet, there are equally just as passionate and dedicated fans for me, too, on the internet. And without kind of like the balance of the both of them, I don’t think that you get one without the other.
“So, I mean, all the love that I feel like I received from the fans that are very passionate about me, the other losers that are mean are probably just the other end of the spectrum, and that’s the way that it tilts sometimes.”
