Cory
Sandhagen buried an all-time great and kept his hopes alive for
a shot at the undisputed
Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight crown.
“Sandman” appeared to be well on his way to a lopsided win against
Deiveson
Figueiredo when the Brazilian was forced to tap out due to a
knee injury in the second round of their
UFC on ESPN 67 main event on Saturday at Wells Fargo Arena in
Des Moines, Iowa.
Figueiredo (24-5-1, 13-5-1 UFC) asked out of the match 4:08 into
Round 2.
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Sandhagen (18-5, 11-4UFC) had taken care of business right up to
the finish. He scrambled into top position after being taken down
in the first round and made Figueiredo pay for repeated heel hook
attempts with heavy ground-and-pound. A similar scene had begun to
play out in Round 2. There, with both men fishing for leg locks,
Sandhagen rolled into top position while still entangled with the
two-time flyweight champion. The torque proved to be too much for
Figueiredo’s left knee, resulting in the stoppage.
Meanwhile, former two-division ONE Championship titleholder
Reinier
de Ridder brought down four-time NCAA All-American wrestler
Bo
Nickal with a knee strike to the body in the second round of
their middleweight co-headliner.
De Ridder (20-2, 3-0 UFC) drew the curtain 1:53 into Round 2, as he
extended his current winning streak to four
fights.
Nickal (7-1, 4-1 UFC) had no answer for the brute force with which
he was met. De Ridder baited him into an ill-advised guillotine
choke in the first round, swept into top position and applied
suffocating control to send a message. The Dutchman turned up the
heat in the clinch in Round 2, then proceeded to batter Nickal with
knees and punches to the midsection. The blue-chip prospect
retreated into open space, at which point de Ridder stepped into a
savage knee to the liver. Nickal collapsed at the base of the cage.
No follow-up shots were required.
De Ridder has delivered 18 of his 20 career victories by knockout,
technical knockout or submission.
Further down the main card, Daniel
Rodriguez put away “The Ultimate Fighter Brazil” Season 2
semifinalist Santiago
Ponzinibbio with punches in the third round of their
welterweight showcase. Ponzinibbio (30-9, 12-8 UFC) checked out 72
seconds into Round 3, losing for the fourth time in five
appearances.
Rodriguez (19-5, 9-4 UFC) was the heavier hitter and made the most
of it. He wobbled Ponzinibbio with a clubbing left hand in the
first round, maintained a steady pace in the middle stanza and
delivered the kill shot in the third.
There, he pieced together a three-punch combination, leveled
Ponzinibbio with a sweeping left hook and mopped up what was left
of the Argentinian with a diving standing-to-ground right that
prompted referee Kevin
MacDonald to act.
It was Rodriguez’s first finish in almost four years.
Elsewhere, Dana White’s Contender Series graduate Montel
Jackson rode a persistent jab, clean one-twos and a stellar
get-up game to a unanimous decision over the previously unbeaten
Daniel
Marcos in their three-round bantamweight attraction. Jackson
(15-2, 9-2 UFC) swept the scorecards with matching 30-27 marks from
all three judges.
Marcos (17-1, 4-1 UFC) was limited to a few completed takedowns and
sporadic kicks to the inside leg. Jackson controlled virtually all
of their standup exchanges and also authored the most memorable
moment of the 15-minute encounter in the third round, where he
doubled up on right hands over the top and had the former 300
Sparta titleholder ducking for cover along the fence. The Eric
Schafer protégé later snapped down on a standing brabo choke in
the waning seconds, and while his efforts came up empty, his
squeeze gave Marcos something by which to remember him.
Jackson has rattled off six consecutive victories.
Deeper into the draw, ex-Battle Fight League champion Serhiy
Sidey brought his all-terrain weapons to bear in a unanimous
decision over Metro Fight Club prospect Cameron
Smotherman in their three-round bantamweight feature. Scores
were 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28—all for Sidey (12-2, 2-1 UFC), who won
for the eighth time in nine outings.
Smotherman (12-5, 1-1 UFC) ran into a puzzle he could not solve.
Sidey speared him with jabs from the perimeter, mixed in kicks to
the legs and body, countered effectively when the situation called
for it and turned to takedowns later in the match. He threatened
with a brabo choke in the third round, and though he failed to net
the finish, it short-circuited any thoughts of a Hail Mary comeback
from his game but outmatched opponent.
The setback snapped Smotherman’s four-fight winning streak.
Finally, former two-division Cage Warriors Fighting Championship
titleholder Mason Jones
spoiled the return of hometown favorite Jeremy
Stephens and took a unanimous decision from the Alliance MMA
rep in their three-round lightweight appetizer. All three cageside
judges scored it the same: 30-27 for Jones (16-2, 2-2 UFC).
In his first UFC appearance since 2021, Stephens (29-22, 15-19 UFC)
had his moments—he damaged the Welshman’s left eye with a clean
one-two in the first round and sent his mouthpiece flying with a
right hook in the second—but struggled to sustain offense. Jones
utilized effective kicks to all levels, opened a cut on top of the
Iowa native’s head with a spinning back elbow and executed repeated
takedowns, often transitioning between full mount and the back. He
completely neutralized Stephens across the final five minutes,
grounding him over and over again as the crowd showered him with
boos.
Jones, 30, has won five fights in a row.
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