When an upcoming fighter wants to make it to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), there may be many things that they think they need to be, whether it is extremely strong or athletic. Or technical, or have one-punch knockout power or a dangerous submission game.
However, according to the No. 4 ranked Bantamweight Cory Sandhagen, those are all good to have, but the number one thing that a fighter needs to have is responsibility.
“Okay, the reason that I was so great, and my top one thing that you need to be in order to be a UFC fighter or great just in general, is you have to be responsible,” Sandhagen said on his YouTube channel. “It isn’t this thing where you got to have that dog in you, and you got to have like a crazy, insane work ethic or blah, blah, blah. Those are also really important things. But I think being an organized person, an efficient thinker, an efficient action taker, and just making it so that you can do things more efficiently, more organized, and you be more responsible than other people which will take you vastly further than what you think it will…its time, its responsibility, and its efficiency.”
“So be responsible, don’t miss practice, when you mess up, it’s okay. You just have to be responsible for correcting that mistake,” Sandhagen continued. “There’s a lot of really awesome coaches out there. I myself have worked with a lot of awesome coaches in the past. I currently work with a lot of awesome coaches. But I will say that one thing that I do abnormally different than what I see in my peers is that if I’m messing something up, I don’t have to have someone tell me that… once you get to a certain point, and sometimes just in society at a certain age, people start pulling you off into the corner and telling you that you messed up, you have to be responsible for the things that you’re messing up in your life. If you’re at that point in your MMA career or in life, or whatever, in general, you are 100% responsible for taking accountability for the things that you’re doing. So don’t count on other people. If people are there to help because they love you and they’re your friend, and they care about you and all of that, then great. Don’t count on that. Be responsible for you. That’s number one.”
Sandhagen, 31, has always been an introspective fighter and has a different take on fighting, which is very refreshing in such a brute, manly sport. And responsibility is a fantastic trait to have, especially as a fighter, whether financially or everything he described.
“Sandman” was last in action against Rob Font in the main event of UFC Nashville, in which he suffered a torn tricep while winning a lopsided, uneventful unanimous decision. He was left out of the Bantamweight title picture because of the injury. He will be playing the waiting game to see what happens between Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera at UFC 299 as well as Henry Cejudo vs. Merab Dvalishvili.