UFC on ESPN 50 Beforemath: Can Sandhagen Deal with Font’s Jab?

This weekend, the UFC’s bantamweight division gets its moment to shine as Cory Sandhagen and Rob Font are set to take lumps out of each other in the main event of “UFC Nashville.” The fight, which Font is taking on short notice, will determine the next set of contenders with the winner having a rapid ascension to the title. Sandhagen, who was originally set to face Umar Nurmagomedov, looks to box out another contender and corner whomever the title holder may be come UFC 292. With Font possessing such a glaring and obvious weapon, it will be up to Sandhagen to disrupt the fight and go home with his third straight win. How does Sandhagen deal with the jab? Will Font be able to handle the diversity of striking coming back his way? These are the questions we will be answering in today’s issue of Beforemath.

Dealing with Diversity: A Striker’s Conundrum

Font has had trouble in the past with dynamic strikers. Jose Aldo and Rafael Assuncao gave him fits, but in his last outing, Font managed to hammer his way through Adrian Yanez, a tricky striker in his own right. The first-round knockout was enough to elevate him into position to get the Sandhagen fight and a shot at contention, but Sandhagen is as tricky as Aldo and will present some problems that Font will have to either negate or solve.

via GIPHY

Font’s main weapons are the jab and the cross. Outside of that, he has a good uppercut—something we will talk about later—and a hook or two, but by and large, that’s it. Font lives and dies by the jab. Fighters like Sergio Pettis and Ricky Simon had fits with Font’s jab. Others, namely Aldo and Marlon Vera, feasted on it. If Font is not careful, the jab will be his undoing against Sandhagen, who has the tools to punish him for his lack of creativity.

Sandhagen’s mobility will also be a problem. Font tends to let fighters exit exchanges off of a pivot and Sandhagen loads. But against Adrian Yanez, Font was in similar, though not as extreme, circumstances. While it only lasted a round, Font and Yanez showed us how quickly the dynamic of a fight can change. Early in the fight, Yanez gave Font fits with his more dynamic striking and Font struggled to gain any respect with his main two weapons. To change things up, Font would have to figure out a way to keep Yanez from being so elusive.

(1) Yanez pressured Font for the entirety of the first half of the fight. He pressed forward and smashed the body and hurt Font. With all paths leading through the jab for Font, (2) he would throw one out but Yanez would slip to the inside and Font would overshoot. But you’ll notice (3) that Font’s hand was just in the right spot for a single collar tie. This wasn’t just a coincidence. A couple minutes in and Font would start to look for the tie and Yanez would push him off thinking he was looking for a clinch or takedown. In the third frame, Font grabs the back of the neck and starts to bring Yanez’ head down into the loaded uppercut. (4) The tie would work and Yanez would soon be put away by the exact same punch.

Doing this, however, cannot be the only thing Font relies on against Sandhagen. Sandhagen is too dangerous and has too much experience under his belt, but this is a start. Sandhagen is very mobile and anything he can do to slow him down will help Font win this fight. That, however, is a tall task as Sandhagen is one of the best in the division.

The Striking Diversity of Sandhagen

Sandhagen is one of bantamweight’s best gifts. While Sean O’Malley gets all the recognition for being a dynamic striker, it’s really Sandhagen who is the gift that keeps on giving, but at 31, Sandhagen is no spring chicken for a bantamweight and his time could be running out for a shot at an actual title. Note: We will be referencing stance a lot in this section. Sandhagen switches a lot, and it will be important to point out what happens from which stance.

The real threat for Font lies in preparation for who he was fighting at first. “UFC Nashville” was originally supposed to put Umar Nurmagomedov across the cage from Sandhagen. But that is not really quantifiable in an article and is just conjecture. What we can do is look at what Sandhagen has done in the past and build from there. Before we begin, I’d like to direct you to the previous Aftermath on Sandhagen’s win over Vera. It will expand on a lot of what we talk about today.

Knowing that everything Font does goes through the jab, Sandhagen’s game plan will revolve around taking that one weapon away from him and punishing Font for using it too often. With so much of Font’s offense based off the jab, taking it away will tilt the fight in Sandhagen’s favor. So how to do that? When combating the jab, the lead hand is always where the battle lies. While fighting the lead hand is primarily a southpaw versus orthodox thing, Sandhagen will do so out of mirrored and bladed stances. Controlling the lead hand obstructs the jab for Sandhagen and allows him to find and create openings.

In his fight with Petr Yan, we can see Sandhagen do so throughout the fight. (1) This clip shows that Sandhagen and Yan are in a bladed stance, this time orthodox versus orthodox. With his cross hand (2) Sandhagen reaches out and grabs the wrist of Petr Yan. Finally, (3) he pulls the wrist down and creates an opening for his lead hand. Doing this to Font will not only handcuff him and his jab, but also give Sandhagen opportunities for damage without having to slip or parry away, something we will discuss more later on. This type of hand control is something I expect to see a lot of coming from Sandhagen at “UFC Nashville” because of the way Font fights. However, Sandhagen will also look for damage and to do that, he won’t be able to grab the hand with his cross, or his lead hand for that matter. Doing damage requires both hands. Vera is a low-volume Font when it comes to his hands. While he has kicks as well, Vera is very basic with ones and twos. Sandhagen quickly figured out the rhythm and timing of Vera and should be able to with Font as well.

Once again, (1) Sandhagen is in an orthodox versus orthodox stance. Vera (2) throws a jab out and Sandhagen slips to the inside of the punch. This opens up the (3) rear left hook to the body and (4) the right cross up top. This was a play straight out of Aldo’s book when he fought Vera as well. This is all great but slipping to the inside puts Sandhagen in the exact same position that Adrian Yanez found himself in when he got knocked out. Font will eventually start to grab the collar tie and Sandhagen will have to deal with that by either clinching up or slipping to the outside where he can pivot and land at a 45° angle.

Another option for Sandhagen is to step back into an opposite stance.

Against Vera, we see Sandhagen befuddling him with the stance switch all night. But we also got to see some tactical retreats. (1) Both Sandhagen and Vera are in southpaw and Vera will throw an oblique kick to the knee of Sandhagen. (2) Sandhagen takes his weight off his front foot and (3) switches to orthodox to create space.

We’ve talked about this ad nauseam with Alexander Volkanovski and you can see how he lured Yair Rodriguez into traps using this step back into the opposite stance in UFC 290 Aftermath. There you can gain an idea of how Sandhagen might lead on Font, who gets overzealous at times, to a right hook or cross.

Lastly, I want to discuss how Sandhagen is so sneaky with misdirection. There may not be much to see with his fight with Frankie Edgar on the surface, but the flying knee finish was one of pure execution.

(1) Sandhagen took the first 25 seconds of the fight leading Edgar around the ring laterally. He skipped around and Edgar began to follow and not cut the cage off to meet Sandhagen where he was going. (2) Sandhagen would then stop and make a slight shift to his right. As Edgar saw Sandhagen finally stopping his trot around the ring, he would move in to engage. (3) As Edgar came in, Sandhagen would launch off his back knee.

Sandhagen goes airborne at an angle and (4) the knee lands flush to the chin of Edgar. (5) As you all know, Edgar ended up as a dead body.

This moment may be dramatic for Sandhagen and while he does love the flying knee, it’s not the rule. But the subtle shift in direction is something Sandhagen does well. He will shift his feet to the left and right slightly, taking himself off the center line and lining up angles for him to land in. With Sandhagen putting himself out there to face an opponent practically the opposite of what he’d been preparing for, this fight’s stakes are that much higher. But with Sandhagen’s process of elimination by domination over Vera and Song, it won’t be long until his name is called for a date with the champ, be it Sterling or O’Malley. He just needs to keep winning.