Image credit: Instagram @enterthesandman135
UFC Welterweight Cory Sandhagen talks to Chris Van Vliet from his home in Aurora, Colorado. He talks about his 28-second flying knee KO against Frankie Edgar, earning a title shot, what he learns from a win and what he learns from a loss, his training regimen, playing basketball as a kid, how he first discovered MMA, how much visualization helps him both in and outside of the octagon, his pre-fight rituals, how he got his nickname “The Sandman”, and much more.
On cauliflower ears:
“I was probably 17, that was when I got it a little bit. At 20, that was when I had it really bad in one ear. The way it works is the cartilage gets separated from the skin and it fills up with blood. If you don’t get the blood out, it will just solidify and that’s when it’s really big and ugly. Mine aren’t too bad, but at one point it was literally like having a ping pong ball hanging off of my ear. I was going to get syringes at King Soopers to get the blood out, but after a month they stopped selling me syringes because they thought that I was doing drugs. It starts in one little corner with a bit of swelling. But then you let it get hit a few times and that’s all she wrote.”
On his flying knee knockout:
“I have definitely been hurt after some fights, even if I win. But this one I’m completely fine, which I am blessed for. It doesn’t get much better than that. I didn’t think it was going to happen like that. I’ve never knocked anyone out like that before in my life. So it was interesting to go through those set of emotions. You are happy, but you also understand that the person that you have knocked out has family, friends and people that do love watching. It was a bit strange in that way, but it doesn’t get too much better than that. The knee was loud, and it turned his head pretty hard. I remember (because there’s no fans) sitting there afterwards and no one is making any noise. That was when I realized that it was not normal, it was pretty devastating.”
“I used to judge people a lot on how they acted after their fight. I would think that guy is arrogant or that guy is an idiot. But I stopped judging them because I did it a few times and the state of mind going into a fight isn’t normal. It requires a higher level of intensity that people might not understand. The adrenaline was still kicking in, and my corner said the fight was over, lets show some respect. I then settled down a bit and started to feel about doing it.”
“I didn’t get to speak to him later, but I sent him a message saying I hope everything is OK. It’s always a bit awkward after you beat someone. You don’t know what to say to them, especially as there is no sport that hurts when you lose like it does in MMA. He replied to my message, and all is good now.”
On learning from victories and defeats:
“I think you can learn from both, it just depends how honest you want to be with yourself. I think a lot of my success from me being really honest with myself. And me being like even if I did pull off a win, I would try to pick out as many things as I could that went wrong. That has been really helpful for me. I do think that losing, because I have had 2 losses as a professional, my one before last year was 3 – 4 years ago, reminded me that you are doing something serious that you can get harmed in.
It also reminds you that losing is the worst, you know. Having those conversations with people when you get back home, just the way people look at you and the whole experience of losing is miserable. I think sometimes you need to be reminded of that. After my last loss, I made the decision that I’m not going to lose again (laughs).”
On when his next title shot will be:
“The UFC is run like a business. The bigger your name is, the more likelihood you have of securing that thing. I know I have a lot of people in that division that are really huge names. The bantamweight division is a really hot division right now. I’m the new guy that is putting my footmark and stuff. If you look at it on paper, I definitely think that I have earned it, especially after something like my last fight. I think that I’ve deserved it and earned it. But at the same time, I’m not going to bank on it, I’m not going to put any eggs in that basket. Whoever they tell me to fight I’ll fight next, as long as it’s reasonable. I’m just going to keep it moving.”
On whether he watches his matches back:
“I watch a decent amount, to be honest. I’m a real visual learner, I learn a lot by watching. Whenever I feel like I’m getting too far away from things I do, especially in the training room, usually I will go back and watch a couple of my fights. I will go that was really good here and that was really good here. I think as far as film study goes, I probably do more on myself, watching myself making mistakes than I watch my opponents film.”
On why he decided to become an MMA fighter:
“It was probably when I was 18 years old. I had started training when I was 17. But before that I was doing some boxing and taekwondo, I actually grew up playing basketball. We were always a competitive basketball family, my sister was a basketball player too, so not playing basketball was never an option. I tried to make that suggestion to my mum when I was a senior in high school. She told me if I have to wear a singlet, the I’m not allowed to wrestle. So we stuck with basketball and I had been training for about a year.
“I had a best friend who lost his life when we were both 18. I realized really quick that all of this can be taken away, that’s how it happens, especially when you are young. That was pretty much the catalyst that made me go I am going to do what I want. I wanted the full experience of life, whatever it had to offer.”
On nerves and fighting with no crowds:
“I get myself in a state of mind where when I’m walking, there isn’t much going on. It’s pretty much just fight my best and keeping myself safe and that I’m hurting the other person as much as I can. That’s pretty much all that’s in my brain when I am making the walk. It’s more the weeks leading up to it that’s the nerves part. I don’t notice that there’s no audience anymore. My loss last year was my first fight without the crowd. I anticipated it, I can’t really make an excuse that it had anything to do with the result. But it was a bit strange the first time.”
On visualization:
“More or less. It’s also important to visualize a lot of the mistakes you might make too, so you don’t have an oh crap moment. Those are really important. For me it’s a lot of every little thing, every position, every advantage or disadvantage that might happen in the fight. What gets me really motivated is the post fight visualization. I like visualizing making a speech afterwards, picking up my pay check, facetiming my family and girlfriend. Also all of the people that I have made happy from my victory.”
“I use visualization in all aspects of my life. I’m a lot less hippy than I was 5 or 6 years ago. The word spiritual stirs up a lot of connotations that don’t align with my value system. I do a lot of visualization on what is happening inside of me, because a lot of things are happening inside of us. We have a lot going on, our world is very hectic and very fast. If you don’t sit down and sit with a lot of those things, they will manifest in some other way. I do a lot of meditation and visualization on me. What do I have to do to be a good person by the definition of it. It could mean baggage, I sometimes need to take a couple of breaths and be with my body.”
On his morning and daily routines:
“I have my coffee and mess around on my phone until the coffee kicks in and I’m more awake. I’ll usually get up at around 6:00 – 6:30. I usually don’t have anything to do until about 10. I will either read, meditate or do some visualization because I want to know what I want the day to look like. When I’m not training super hard, I need a lot more stimulation than when I am. It’s a lot of reading and studying. Right now I am reading Be Here Now, I also started reading The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly Hall. It’s a little bit out there. But when I’m training I don’t have the attention span to stick with a book like that.”
On where his nickname The Sandman came from:
“I’ve actually always kind of been called that. It doesn’t really have any character meaning. When I was a kid, my teachers always used to sing the Mr Sandman song. So that was a bit where it used to start. People also used to call me sandy, which I didn’t really dig. I’m never coming out to Enter Sandman by Metallica, it wouldn’t be true to myself. My Instagram handle actually comes from Enter The Dragon, which is my favourite movie.”
On 3 things that he is grateful for:
“That I don’t need to kill myself in the training room every day, that I have more energy to give to my relationships and that there is really nice weather in Colorado.”
Cory Sandhagen can be found on Instagram here.
Video version can be found below:
