Aurora's Cory "Sandman" Sandhagen ready to take on Dvalishvili for UFC World Championship title

An Aurora MMA fighter is making a name for himself as he gets ready to take his first shot at the title in the UFC World Championships.

His pictures are in the 2010 Smoky Hill High School yearbook, Cory "Sandman" Sandhagen, varsity basketball.

"I was just a basketball player growing up," recalled Sandhagen. "I wanted to wrestle, but we were a basketball family, so my mom was like, stick with basketball, you're really good at that."

However, it turned out that he was better in the cage than on the court, so Cory turned his attention to fighting.

"Fighting is cool. Being able to beat up your friends is way cool. I would go to the locker room and say, 'Let's do this.' When I first started training and submitted my friends, it was just a cool thing to be able to do," Sandhagen said.

Sandhagen has been doing it at his gym in Aurora, High Altitude Martial Arts, for some 18 years now, and on Oct. 4th in Las Vegas, he will get to fight for the UFC Bantamweight World Championship against Merab Dvalishvili.

"Fighting for the belt is obviously a big deal," said Sanhagen. "I'm not getting too stoked about the idea, though, because unless I win, it doesn't really mean too much."

Fighting is Sanhagen's life, but he does have other interests. He likes to write and is currently working on his own comic book, but for the immediate future, his focus is on Merab Dvalishvili.

There are eight weight divisions in the UFC, but not one current title holder is from America. Not only is Sanhagen from the States, but Cory is a Colorado kid.

"Bruce Lee has a quote, 'Under the heavens there is just one family.' That's kind of the way I like to live, but I want everyone to feel those things when they watch me fight, it's like this kid from Colorado did it and he's the champion of the world."

That is the goal for Cory Sanhagen, a dream that he hopes will become reality on October 4th.