Cory Sandhagen has long been considered a future UFC bantamweight champion.

The 31-year-old Colorado native can enhance that reputation this weekend in Nashville, Tennessee when he takes on late replace Rob Font in a catchweight 140-pound bout to headline the UFC’s latest card in Music City, a fight hastily assembled after Sandhagen’s original opponent, Umar Nurmagomedov, pulled out in July citing a shoulder injury.

Against Font, though, Sandhagen faces a tough outing. Winner of five of his last seven, the 36-year-old harbours intentions of putting together a title run of his own, and knows that catching Sandhagen cold late on Saturday night might just represent his best chance of forging a path to a world championship opportunity.

Easier said than done, however. Sandhagen’s only defeats in the UFC have come against top-level competition (Yan, Dillashaw, Sterling) and he looked impressive in recent wins against Song Yadong and Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera, the latter of which you can check out below:

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