Preview: UFC on ESPN 50 ‘Sandhagen vs. Font’

It is always nice when the Ultimate Fighting Championship ventures outside the UFC Apex for a non-major event, as the promotion usually puts on a stronger card; and the company’s return to Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday at Bridgestone Arena will be no exception. The UFC on ESPN 50 main event should be an excellent in what is essentially a bantamweight bout contested at a 140-pound catchweight. Cory Sandhagen looks to continue his run of beating every potential contender until a shot at the title becomes undeniable, while Rob Font gets a huge opportunity to build on some newfound momentum after a big win in April. Beyond that, the next two fights do most of the heavy lifting in terms of the rest of the main draw. Tatiana Suarez fights at strawweight for the first time since 2019 and looks to state her case against former champion Jessica Andrade, while Dustin Jacoby faces Kennedy Nzechukwu in a fascinating pairing of fringe-Top 15 light heavyweights. Add in a fun lightweight opener pitting Ignacio Bahamondes against Ludovit Klein, and this should be nothing less than a good time.

Now to the UFC on ESPN 50 ‘Sandhagen vs. Font’ preview:

Bantamweights

#4 BW | Cory Sandhagen (16-4, 9-3 UFC) vs. #7 BW | Rob Font (20-6, 10-5 UFC)

ODDS: Sandhagen (-330), Font (+240)

Bantamweight might be the UFC’s deepest division, but Sandhagen is doing his damnedest to make an undeniable case for a title shot. Sandhagen’s 2018 UFC debut was a complete afterthought—he was signed for a thrown-together matchup during fight week to make up for some lost bouts—but it took a little over a year for him to announce himself as a potential contender to watch, scoring upset wins over John Lineker and Raphael Assuncao with his pace-heavy approach. That figured to make Sandhagen’s subsequent matchup against Aljamain Sterling an interesting affair that also could determine bantamweight’s next title challenger, but the fight only delivered on one of those two fronts. Sterling did indeed become the top contender after his victory, but the fight itself lasted roughly a minute and a half, as the Serra-Longo Fight Team star quickly took Sandhagen down and tapped him out. To his credit, Sandhagen rebounded in impressive fashion with finishes over veterans Marlon Moraes and Frankie Edgar, then put in two strong performances in narrow losses to T.J. Dillashaw and Petr Yan. Sandhagen probably deserved the win over Dillashaw in a fight that saw the former champion bank a lot of control time with his wrestling. The Yan fight was an impressive showing from both men that saw Sandhagen implement some smart ideas only to get met every step of the way. Sandhagen has continued to retool in subsequent fights—main event wins over the aforementioned Song and Marlon Vera, adapting his approach, mixing in his wrestling and essentially showing himself to be an even more complete fighter every time out, all while providing plenty of entertainment. Thankfully for the UFC fanbase, Sandhagen is also taking the approach of needing to prove himself through fighting the toughest opponents as often as possible. He is back here in another excellent main event pairing, this time against Font.

After a frustrating few years, it is good to see Font heading into a fight while riding some positive vibes, particularly since this serves as another chance for the New Englander to break into the bantamweight title picture. The early stretches of Font’s UFC career were marred by injuries and his failure to capitalize on some aggressive matchmaking. Font’s wins would see him mix together his offensive weapons in entertaining fashion, but the UFC took every opportunity to then throw him into a tough fight, at which point he gained a reputation as the fighter more willing to cede ground. That rollercoaster of failure and success went on for a bit until Font’s 2019 win over Ricky Simon—the first sign that he could hold his ground against an aggressive opponent and throw back some effective offense in return; it led to a run that saw Font establish himself as a UFC Fight Night headliner. However, fights against Jose Aldo and Vera saw Font hit a hard ceiling in disheartening fashion. Looking at the fights on paper, each appears to be a clear Font win in terms of statistics; the fight against Vera, where Font managed to throw 520 strikes, sticks out as a particularly strong showing in terms of pure numbers. Yet in practice, each appearance clearly went against Font. He followed a strong gameplan, put in an excellent performance in each fight and simply found himself unable to get rounds over the finish line, as Aldo and Vera—more powerful athletes—would take a few moments per round to completely blast Font, negating minutes’ worth of work with one huge moment of impact. With Font staring a career plateau in the face, that made his April win over Adrian Yanez particularly cathartic. It quickly turned into a fun scrap, and Font re-affirmed that he is still capable of taking an opening and running over an opponent in quick and brutal fashion. That also sets up Font for a fight that figures to be a more winnable breakthrough opportunity than those fights against Aldo and Vera, as Sandhagen is also the type of fighter who gets things done through consistency rather than single huge moments, even if either man is capable of pulling off a big finish. If nothing else, this figures to be an amazing battle of pace where both men will be forced to keep up and figure to be more than able to do so; and Font’s ability to combine speed, pace and pressure in a way that Sandhagen’s last few opponents have not been able to do adds yet another layer to an excellent fight. The read is that Sandhagen has enough weapons and physical advantages to take this on the margins. His willingness to wrestle lately should pay off at times, and if nothing else, he wears damage much better cosmetically than Font. With that said, this is a nip-tuck affair that serves as a good matchup for Font and an opportunity for Sandhagen to gain even more fans. The pick is Sandhagen via decision.

Jump To »
Sandhagen vs. Font
Suarez vs. Andrade
Nzechukwu vs. Jacoby
Lopes vs. Tucker
Boser vs. Camur
Bahamondes vs. Klein
The Prelims