Initially slated to feature at UFC Fight Night Raleigh in January of this year, a bantamweight pairing of recent UFC Fight Island 5 victor, Cory ‘The Sandman’ Sandhagen and former lightweight best, Frankie ‘The Answer’ Edgar have been verbally agreed upon for a UFC Fight Night event on February 6th. — with a location and venue for the event yet to be determined.
Recent bantamweight debutante, Edgar was first set to match with Elevation Fight Team mainstay Sandhagen at the above-mentioned, Raleigh event, until a short-notice knockout defeat to one-time 145-pound title challenger, ‘The Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung at UFC Fight Night Busan in December last ruled him from proceedings.
Headlining his first event under the UFC’s banner in October, Sandhagen earned his #2 rank at 135-pounds via a highlight-reel second-round wheel-kick stoppage of former WSOF bantamweight best and one-time UFC title chaser, ‘Magic’ Marlon Moraes.
39-year-old Tom’s River favourite, Edgar successfully made his bantamweight bow in August at UFC Vegas 7 — returning to the winner’s enclosure via a split decision win over Pedro ‘The Young Punisher’ Munhoz in a close back-and-forth. News of the targeted tie was first reported by ESPN MMA reporter, Ariel Helwani.
A seven-fight Octagon veteran, Sandhagen featured twice this year, scoring his above-mentioned finish of Moraes, after a high-profile rear-naked choke defeat to number-one contender and incoming title challenger, Aljamain ‘Funk Master’ Sterling at UFC 250 in June.
Seeing his five-fight promotional rise halted, the 28-year-old has nabbed consecutive victories over Austin Arnett, Iuri Alcantara, Mario Bautista, John Lineker, and Raphael Assuncao.
Returning to winning ways, Edgar halted a two-fight skid of his own, with a featherweight title challenge loss to then-champion, Max ‘Blessed’ Holloway coming prior to his knockout defeat to Jung in South Korea.
A former undisputed lightweight titleholder, Ricardo Almeida and Mark Henry mainstay, Edgar had picked up notable career victories over B.J. Penn (x3), Gray Maynard, Charles Oliveira, Cub Swanson (x2), Urijah Faber, Chad Mendes, Jeremy Stephens, and Yair Rodriguez.
The UFC Fight Night event — which is still without a location or venue, is set to be headlined by a high-stakes, potential heavyweight title-eliminator between the decorated Dutch kickboxer, Alistair ‘The Demolition Man’ Overeem, and former Bellator titleholder, Alexander ‘Drago’ Volkov.