TJ Dillashaw was stripped of his Bantamweight title in 2019, after testing positive for EPO. His suspension is up in two months, leaving questions on where he fits in when he returns to the division. Petr Yan and Jose Aldo fought for the vacant belt earlier this year, meaning TJ is back to being a challenger at the very least.
Cory Sandhagen is coming off a spinning back kick KO over top contender, Marlon Moraes. He believes he’s just one more win away from a title shot, and getting it against the former Champion makes the most sense to him. Despite them once being sparring partners.
“I definitely think my No. 1 contender fight should be against T.J. just because it makes the most sense,” Sandhagen told MMA Fighting. “I think that I have a pretty strong case now, and when TJ comes back, he’s going to have a pretty strong case. I’d love to fight him and then right after that when the winner of Yan and Sterling are ready to go, fight one of those guys in the spring or sometime.”
“I’m almost positive I’ve fought some guys on steroids,” Sandhagen continued. “Doing this for like 11 years now, doing kickboxing tournaments and stuff internationally, I know for sure I’ve fought guys on steroids. But I’ve always dealt with that because I knew it was part of the sport. I didn’t let it intimidate me. I just honestly in my head, I just assumed everyone was on steroids, and if they wanted to do that, I was still going to beat them up.
TJ Dillashaw’s suspension is up in January. Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling are fighting for the Bantamweight title next month.
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