Tim Welch doesn’t see a potential fight between Sean O’Malley and Cory Sandhagen being a striking battle.
Sandhagen (18-6 MMA, 11-5 UFC) hopes to land his long-desired matchup with O’Malley (18-3 MMA, 10-3 UFC) at the White House event next June after falling short in his title fight against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 320.
After seeing Dvalishvili rock Sandhagen in the second round of their fight, Welch thinks Sandhagen would think twice before standing and trading with O’Malley.
“Cory is not an easy guy because he’s so good at mixing it in, but I do think you saw how hurt he was vs. Merab hitting him,” Welch said on his YouTube channel. “Merab is confident, and he’s throwing those punches hard. But again, ‘Suga’ f*cking hits people hard, dude. And he hits them on the money, lights out – hurts them to their body real hard, and then he finds a spot to put it on the money: Boom, to just KO somebody.
“So I think it’ll be the first guy Cory’s fought who hits as hard as ‘Suga.’ Cory, he’s going to be trying to shoot. He’s not going to just sit there and strike with Sean. He says he is, but he’s not. He’s going to mix in shots, try to get on top, try to do what he did vs. (Marlon) ‘Chito’ Vera.”
O’Malley is also coming off a title loss to Dvalishvili after getting submitted at UFC 316, marking his second-straight loss to the champion.
