UFC Fight Night - Sandhagen vs. Figueiredo: Live Winners and Losers, Results
The UFC debuted in Des Moines, Iowa on Saturday night, and the MMA promotion brought a pretty solid card to town.
The main event of the evening was contested at bantamweight, with No. 4-ranked contender Cory Sandhagen taking on former flyweight champion and fifth-ranked bantamweight Deiveson Figueiredo. Sandhagen dominated the action, and finished things with strikes after Figueiredo suffered an injury in round two. After the fact, he might well be looking at a title shot in his division.
As anticipated as the main event was, the co-main event was arguably even more hyped. In one corner, we had highly touted middleweight contender Bo Nickal, who was closing in on the division's top-15. In the other, we had former two-division ONE Championship title-holder Reiner de Ridder, who was looking to make it 3-0 in the UFC at Nickal's expense. It was a fascinating matchup between two world-class grapplers, but in the end, De Ridder shocked onlookers by battering Nickal to a stoppage on the feet.
A number of other fighters showed out in Des Moines, most notably welterweight veteran Daniel Rodriguez, who knocked out Santiago Ponzinibbio on the main card.
Keep scrolling for the complete results of the card, and a rundown of the biggest winners and losers of the night.
UFC Fight Night - Sandhagen vs. Figueiredo Complete Results
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Main Card | ESPN2 and ESPN+ at 10:00pm ET
Cory Sandhagen def. Deiveson Figueiredo via TKO (injury) at 4:08 of round two
Reinier de Ridder def. Bo Nickal by TKO at 1:53 of round two
Daniel Rodriguez def. Santiago Ponzinibbio by TKO at 1:12 of round three
Montel Jackson def. Daniel Marcos via unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
Serhiy Sidey def. Cameron Smotherman by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28 x2)
Mason Jones def. Jeremy Stephens by unanimous decision (30-27 x3)
Preliminary Card | ESPN2 and ESPN+ at 7:00pm ET
Yana Santos def. Miesha Tate by unanimous decision (29-28 x3)
Azamat Bekoev def. Ryan Loder by TKO at 2:44 of round one
Gillian Robertson def. Marina Rodriguez by TKO at 2:07 of round two
Quang Le def. Gaston Bolanos by submission (rear-naked choke) at 1:54 of round two
Thomas Petersen def. Don’Tale Mayes by unanimous decision (30-25, 30-26 x2)
Juliana Miller def. Ivana Petrovic by split decision (29-28 x3)
Winner: Correcting Course
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Vietnamese-born Minnesotan Quang Le made his UFC debut last summer, and did not get a warm welcome. In his first fight with the promotion, he was matched up Chris Gutierrez — a man who famously sent Hall of Famer Frankie Edgar into retirement with a brutal knockout. Le ultimately lost that fight by decision, but performed well enough that most fans who watched felt he was worth keeping an eye on. However, he then came up short again in his next fight, suffering a TKO against Xiao Long, which left him in a make-or-break position ahead of his fight in Des Moines.
Le was back in action in Des Moines against a solid opponent in Peru's Gaston Bolaños. Bolaños entered the Octagon as a slight favorite, but in the end, the fight was all Le. The Minnesotan took his foe down and controlled him in round one, and ultimately choked him completely unconscious in the second.
If Le has lost, he might have been sent packing from the UFC. Now that he's won, he once again looks like a fighter to keep an eye on.
"It's a dream come true," Le said in his post-fight interview with Michael Bisping. "I've seen this [outcome] thousands of times. I've seen you interviewing me after the fight all camp. It feels amazing. I was so afraid, so scared coming out here for the fight because I needed this win so bad.
"I sacrificed everything to get here," he added. "This win means the world to me."
Winner: the Next Generation of Strawweights
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Last summer, rising Canadian strawweight Gillian Robertson sent fan favorite veteran Michelle Waterson-Gomez into retirement with a unanimous decision win. After a decision win over Luana Pinheiro last fall, she returned to action in Des Moines, where she sent another veteran into retirement — this time, 38-year-old Brazilian Marina Rodriguez.
“This is my last fight," Rodriguez said after removing her gloves. “MMA fans, you’re amazing."
Rodriguez has been a staple of the strawweight top-15 for years, and Robertson absolutely ran over her, finishing things off with a storm of strikes in round two.
The win reaffirmed the Canadian as one of the brightest young contenders in her division, and should send her crashing into the top-10.
In terms of her next opponent, she has options. However, if she has her way, it will be another aging veteran next: Amanda Lemos.
“I'm super excited about that [win],” Robertson said in her post-fight interview. “I’m super happy with that performance.
“I want Amanda Lemos next.”
Even at 37, Lemos is definitely a tough out. However, Robertson has proven she is more than capable of handling the strawweight division's old guard. We say give her the fight she wants. It will tell us a lot about where both women belong in the weight class as of 2025, and if Robertson wins, a fight with champion Zhang Weili could be next.
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Loser: Sticking Around Too Long
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Miesha Tate is a legend of women's mixed martial arts. Not only was she a trailblazer in the defunct Strikeforce organization, but she is also a former bantamweight champion in the UFC. At this point, her impact on the women's side of the sport is irrefutable.
Unfortunately, she has been doing some unnecessary damage to her legacy — and her body — over the last few years.
Tate actually retired after a decision loss to future champ Raquel Pennington in 2016. Unlike many retiring fighters, she seemed pretty set on on the decision, especially after settling into a cushy executive role with ONE Championship in Singapore.
In 2021 however, Tate announced plans to return to fighting, and was welcomed back to the Octagon. She won her first fight back, beating the retiring Marion Reneau by TKO, which looked like a good sign, but she has not had great results since then, with a 3-1 record in her last 4.
First, she suffered back to back losses to Ketlen Vieira and Lauren Murphy. While she later bounced back with a submission win over Julia Avila, her Saturday fight in Des Moines resulted in one of the worst losses of her career.
Tate was back in action against Russia's Yana Santos on the card. While she nearly mounted a comeback in the third and final round, she was dominated through the first two — and looked totally outclassed on the feet — which equated to a very justifiable unanimous decision loss.
After the loss, Tate should seriously consider retiring again. She is clearly still quite good, but the chances of her making it anywhere near champion Julianna Peña or No. 1 contender Kayla Harrison — two women she recently claimed she wants to fight — seem almost nonexistent.
Only Tate can say whether he decision to end her first retirement and return to the UFC was the fight one. However, taking another fight definitely seems like a bad idea for the veteran. Lots of fighters are retiring lately: Anthony Smith, Marina Rodriguez, and Dustin Poirier, to name a few. She might be wise to follow suit.
Loser: Lil Heathen's Homecoming
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Jeremy "Lil Heathen" Stephens is one of the longest tenured fighters in UFC history. However, when he parted ways with the promotion in the midst of a six-fight winless streak in 2021, it seemed very unlikely he'd ever return. After a 1-2 stint in the PFL SmartCage, it seemed even more doubtful he'd ever make it back to the Octagon.
The fight game is full of surprises.
After a couple of boxing matches, Stephens dropped his gloves and signed with BKFC. He won his first three fights with the bare-knuckle promotion, including a knockout win over former UFC lightweight champ last time out. That, it turned out, was enough for the UFC to invite him back for one more scrap in his home town of Des Moines.
Stephen was matched up with Welshman Mason Jones on Saturday's card. He entered the Octagon as the biggest underdog of the night, but would have absolutely thrilled the fans in the building if he somehow pulled off the upset.
Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. Stephens had a couple of nice lands over the course of the three-round fight, but overall, he was soundly out-struck and out-grappled by his younger opponent.
At this point, all signs point to Stephens returning to BKFC — perhaps for a super fight with fellow UFC vet "Platinum" Mike Perry. However, it's hard to say if there was any point to his Saturday night UFC return. He might have been better off forgoing the comeback altogether.
Winner: Veteran Matchmaking
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The UFC doesn't always handle its veteran fighters with care. The promotion is prone to booking its older fighters against younger, fresher opposition. There's nothing wrong with that, necessarily, but it doesn't usually end well for the older fighter. Just ask Anthony Smith, who was brutalized by Zhang Mingyang in his retirement fight last weekend.
That being said, the UFC does book some very cool matchups for its veteran fighters at times. We got one such matchup in Des Moines, when 38-year-old welterweights Santiago Ponzinibbio and Daniel Rodriguez collided.
Just minutes into the first round, commentator Michael Bisping was celebrating how well matched the two veterans were.
"Very, very evenly matched," he said. 'Similar styles, opposite stances."
In the end, Rodriguez won the fight with a sizzling multi-punch combination in the third round, but Ponzinibbio had his moments too, arguably winning the second frame.
It's unlikely either fighter will be in the UFC a few years from now, but for the moment, they both clearly have plenty to give — as long as they're not matched up with young killers.
Loser: the Bo Nickal Hype Train
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Former two-division ONE Championship title-holder Reinier de Ridder was widely expected to be the toughest test of Bo Nickal's MMA career to date. In the end, those suspicions proved accurate.
Nickal met De Ridder in Saturday night's co-main event. The American wrestling standout was looking to make it 5-0 in the UFC, and earn a spot in the rankings at the hulking Dutchman's expense.
The oddsmakers believed Nickal could pull it off, but many fans wondered if De Ridder's world-class jiu jitsu would prove to be the American's undoing. In the end, it was De Ridder's underrated striking that sealed the deal.
After controlling Nickal with his grappling for most of round one, De Ridder pulverized his foe with strikes in round two, and ultimately folded him in half with a knee to the midsection.
"I’ve been spending so much time in the US, I wanted to see if I’m still Dutch," De Ridder said in his post-fight interview with Michael Bisping, referencing the many legendary kickboxers to emerge from The Netherlands. "I tried the knees and they’re still working."
Nickal may still become a UFC champion in the future, but this fight was evidence that he still has a ton of growing to do. Perhaps even more importantly, it proved that De Ridder is a serious threat to anybody in the middleweight top-15.
Now let's see if he gets a fight with Sean Strickland, as he requested in his interview with Bisping.
Winner: Staking Your Claim
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No. 4-ranked UFC bantamweight Cory Sandhagen doesn't have the strongest argument for a title shot, but he might get the opportunity anyway.
That's due to two main factors: first, and perhaps most importantly, he is one of just a few top-10 bantamweights who has yet to lose to champion Merab Dvalishvili. Second, he absolutely walloped former flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo in Saturday's headliner.
Sandhagen was in complete control of the fight from beginning to end. In round one, after an ill-advised takedown attempt from Figueiredo, he racked up multiple minutes of control time on the mat, and landed some hellacious ground and pound. In round two, Sandhagen once again took control of the action on the mat, and after Figueiredo suffered an apparent injury, finished things off with ground-and-pound.
After his round two TKO win, Sandhagen is just one win removed from a loss Umar Nurmagomedov. Still, he might just get the crack at the bantamweight title, whether Dvalishvili remains the champion, or relinquishes the belt to Sean O'Malley at UFC 316 in June.
He made one heck of a statement against Figueiredo, and capped it off by campaigning for a title opportunity in his post-fight interview.
"I’m going to be champ one day," he said. "Sean O’Malley, Merab, I want the winner. I’ll be backup if they want.
"UFC, please, give me an opportunity to show the world how great I am."
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