Athletes
Cory Sandhagen Is Finding Synergy At The Right Time
Working With Coaches Carrington Banks And Trevor Wittman, Cory Sandhagen Believes He Is In Top Form Ahead Of His Bantamweight Title Fight At UFC 320
One of Cory Sandhagen’s strengths in the Octagon is his awareness. Whether it comes out through his distance management or knowing when to mix his attack and how to do so, the Colorado-native is most often praised for his mind.
That also comes out in his relationship with his coaches Carrington Banks and Trevor Wittman. Between rounds, the scene is less a coach giving his fighter instruction than it is an athlete and coach having a conversation about what is happening in the heat of battle. In the training room, Sandhagen has liked to understand the how and why of what his coaches are teaching. However, as he closes in on a title fight with Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 320 in Las Veags, the 33-year-old is finding himself more comfortable in trusting those around him completely, saying that he views his coaches as “the masters.”
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“When you're a fighter, you're way too close to your art,” Sandhagen told UFC.com from High Altitude MMA in Colorado. “You're way too close to your passion to see it as clearly as outsiders can, and as long as you trust the outsiders to give you good advice, and you believe that they know really what they're talking about, there really is no reason to not listen to them. I have a couple guys that I coach that I can clearly see what's wrong with what's happening. And when I tried to relay that to them, there's like push back sometimes and I'm like, ‘Holy shit, that's what I've been doing for like years and years.’”
It helps having high-level people in your corner, which Banks and Wittman are. Banks, who started working with Sandhagen in 2020 before assuming “head coaching” duties in the last couple of years, boasts a resume which includes a NJCAA Championship at Iowa Central and 2-time All-American status at Wartburg College.
Beyond the coach-athlete relationship, Banks and Sandhagen are close friends, but when it comes time to work, they have sharpened their ability to work and communicate to pull the best out of Sandhagen when the time comes.
“I couldn't ask for a better person to have helped me in this sport,” Sandhagen said. “Banks not only has a really good grasp on what it is to be a really good wrestler and to be a really good martial artist, but he's also—what separates a good coach from a great coaches? Good coaches can teach you all the techniques in the world. The great ones will make you believe in yourself and will in turn transform your heart and your soul into a fighter. Carrington Banks guides me through that process really well.”
Wittman, whom Cory started working with in 2024. is roundly considered one of the best coaches in the game, guiding the likes of Rose Namajunas, Justin Gaethje and Kamaru Usman through some of their most notable accomplishments.
The team was fire-tested for the first time in Sandhagen’s main event against Umar Nurmagomedov in July 2024. In Abu Dhabi, Sandhagen fought well, stuffing eight of Nurmagomedov’s 13 takedowns and minimizing his time on the mat to less than a minute the first four rounds. However, Sandhagen wasn’t ever able to find his own rhythm and ultimately dropped a unanimous decision verdict.
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“Trevor has really been hammering into my head the last two camps this self-belief that champions have that I thought was really ‘froufrou’ and kind of silly for, for a long time,” Sandhagen said. “But I kind of just was like, ‘All right, I trust this guy a lot, and he knows what he's talking about. He's built champions, and so I'm just going to believe in him and trust him,’ and he's helped me really get my mind to a point where it feels unbeatable.”
Sandhagen laments how defensive-minded he was against Nurmagomedov and, wary of saying anything that sounds like an excuse that takes away from his opponent’s victory over him, admits adjusting to a new coach’s style and philosophy was a “tough transition.”
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He is quick to say he understands nobody really cares about that in the results-based world that is the fight game, but he is approaching his title fight with Dvalishvili with an evolved mentality.
“I really feel like I've tapped into something different,” he said. “I'm at a different level that I've never experienced myself. I'm more confident. I believe in myself more than I've ever believed in myself. My skills are better than they've ever been. I understand everything a lot better. I feel like on fight night, I'm going to be unbeatable. I really feel like I've honed that in, I forged that, I've hammered that down in this training camp, and it's been with the help of me, but also with the help of a lot of my coaches and stuff.
“I really feel like I'm unbeatable, and after I beat Merab, who's kind of known as one of the greatest in the division and all of this stuff, that's going to just shoot my stock way through the roof.”
Throughout camp, Sandhagen feels like his coaches are pushing him harder than ever, and the expectations of his performance throughout each session has risen.
In turn, his general level of excitement is higher as he counts down to his second shot at UFC gold, especially because he has a proper training camp under his belt compared to the month-long sprint to his interim title bout with Petr Yan at UFC 267.
That chance felt like an opportunity to take advantage of while his bout with Dvalishvili, who already collected two defenses of the title this year over Nurmagomedov and Sean O’Malley, has stewed for much longer.
In about a week’s time, Sandhagen finally gets to put all his work to the toughest test possible, and nothing sounds sweeter than the potential reward on the other side of that.
“The idea of me wearing the belt around my waist is super surreal,” he said. “The idea of me bringing that thing home and bringing it to the gym and just being able to say that I did that is a giant deal in my life. I’m super pumped to do it a little bit.”
UFC 320: Ankalaev vs Pereira 2 took place live from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 4, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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