Cory Sandhagen feels he could be right around the corner from a title fight after dismantling former flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo on Saturday night.
Sandhagen closed out a dominant two-round mat showcase against Figueiredo with a brutal finishing sequence, popping the fellow contender’s leg before ending the bout with ground and pound. The high-level bantamweight clash headlined a UFC “Fight Night” card from the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa, USA this weekend.
Here’s a sentence that’s rarely said in MMA: Saturday’s main event centered around a battle between leg-based submissions.
The 135-pound fighters found themselves clutching each other’s legs throughout the two-round battle, with such positions playing a crucial role in the fight’s ending.
In a 50-50 position—where both fighters had a hold of one of their opponent’s legs—Sandhagen seemingly injured the left knee of Figueiredo in the second round, leading to the finish. Sandhagen was able to awkwardly bend the leg of Figueiredo while seated on the mat, causing the Brazilian fighter to reflex backwards onto his back in agony.
This hard-to-watch sequence allowed Sandhagen to move into a top position for ground and pound shots moments later. Sandhagen unloaded on a defenceless Figueiredo, who tapped due to the injury and ended the fight late in the second round.
Figueiredo saw leg attacks on the ground backfire against him in the first round as well. He committed to a leg of Sandhagen during the opening frame of the fight, hoping to potentially put the American away with a rarely-seen heel hook. However, unsuccessful in the attempt, he instead consumed a significant amount of punches from Sandhagen while in a vulnerable position.
While the official ruling of the fight was that it ended due to injury—a result which can often come due to circumstance, like when Tom Aspinall blew out his knee 15 seconds into a fight against Curtis Blaydes—Sandhagen wanted to make it clear afterward that the end of the fight was completely his doing.
“It wasn’t a shame,” Sandhagen said about the result. “If you don’t know how to play 50-50, your knee gets popped … If you just don’t know how to play that position, you lose.”
Sandhagen noted afterward that he came into this weekend fired up due to a loss he suffered last year against then-undefeated talent Umar Nurmagomedov. The fight proved to be a high-stakes result in the division, as Nurmagomedov went on to challenge bantamweight champ Merab Dvalishvili just a few months later.
Now back into the win column, fourth-ranked Sandhagen believes he could be next for a title shot after Dvalishvili rematches former champ Sean O’Malley at UFC 316 on June 7th. He even offered to fill in as an alternate for next month’s title fight, if possible.
There’s no doubt that 33-year-old Sandhagen is currently one of the top potential title challengers in the division. He has won four of his past five fights, with all of them being five-round “Fight Night” headliner assignments. Before Saturday, recent wins came against names like Rob Font and Song Yadong.
Figueiredo, who entered this weekend as an underdog, was looking to restore momentum after losing to Petr Yan last year. The former two-time UFC Flyweight Champion had an impressive rise in the bantamweight ranks before then, stringing together a trio of wins since moving up a weight class.
Here are the quick results for UFC’s first card in Iowa since 2000:
Main Card (10:00PM EDT / 9:00PM CDT) (ESPN2 / ESPN+)
Bout 12: Cory Sandhagen def. Deiveson Figueiredo via TKO, Injury (RD 2, 4:08)
Bout 11: Reinier de Ridder def. Bo Nickal via TKO, Strikes (RD 2, 1:53)
Bout 10: Daniel Rodriguez def. Santiago Ponzinibbio via TKO, Strikes (RD 3, 1:12)
Bout 9: Montel Jackson def. Daniel Marcos via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 8: Serhiy Sidey def. Cameron Smotherman via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 7: Mason Jones def. Jeremy Stephens via Decision, Unanimous
Preliminary Card (7:00PM EDT / 6:00PM CDT) (ESPN2 / ESPN+)
Bout 6: Yana Santos def. Miesha Tate via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 5: Azamat Bekoev def. Ryan Loder via TKO, Strikes (RD 1, 2:07)
Bout 4: Gillian Robertson def. Marina Rodriguez via TKO, Strikes (RD 2,
Bout 3: Quang Le def. Gaston Bolanos via Submission, Rear Naked Choke (RD 2, 1:54)
Bout 2: Thomas Petersen def. Don’Tale Mayes via Decision, Unanimous
Bout 1: Juliana Miller def. Ivana Petrovic via Decision, Unanimous
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