Cory Sandhagen believes he will once again be a difficult matchup for Mario Bautista.

Sandhagen is set to rematch Bautista on the main card of UFC 329. The two fought back in January of 2019, with Sandhagen winning by first-round submission, yet that was Bautista’s UFC debut, and a fight he took on short notice.

Although Sandhagen doesn’t view it as a rematch, he does expect a similar result. And, with the fight only being three rounds, and not five rounds as he’s used to fighting, Sandhagen believes it will be a tough matchup for Bautista.

“I think that that’s probably how Mario’s going to view it, is it’s like a sprint. But I’m still gonna do my same shit that I do in all of my fights,” Sandhagen said at UFC 329 media day. “I feel like I don’t really think of pace. I think of like who’s winning every 10-second interval or whatever, you know? My plan is to just be the best me, whether it’s five-round fights, three-round fights – but that being said, my best rounds are usually my earlier rounds, and that’s going to be hard for Mario to deal with.”

Cory Sandhagen doesn’t view Mario Bautista fight as a rematch

Although Sandhagen has already beaten Bautista once, he views this as a fresh matchup.

However, Cory Sandhagen is still confident in his tools that he will be able to get his hand raised, especially with it being three rounds.

“Outside of Mario, I know, having a chip on his shoulder and probably really wanting this one, which has been something in my mind the entire time that I’ve been training, it doesn’t really feel like a rematch,” Sandhagen told reporters at pre-fight media day. “My memory is about a month long, so anything that happened more than like a month ago, might as well have been lifetimes ago. So yeah, and I also didn’t lose.”

Sandhagen enters UFC 329 with a record of 18-6 and is coming off a decision loss to Merab Dvalishvili last October for the bantamweight title.

Do you think Cory Sandhagen will beat Mario Bautista at UFC 329?