A bantamweight bout between No. 4 ranked Cory Sandhagen and former flyweight champion and No. 5 ranked bantamweight Deiveson Figueiredo headlined Saturday’s UFC Fight Night event in Des Moines, Iowa.
Both fighters entered Saturday’s fight coming off a loss. Sandhagen lost to Umar Nurmagomedov via unanimous decision last August. The loss snapped a three-fight winning streak.
Figueiredo was defeated by former bantamweight titleholder Petr Yan in his last outing. He moved up to the 135-pound weight class after losing the flyweight title in January 2023. He reeled off three consecutive wins before the loss to Yan.
Sandhagen opened the first round with leg kicks. Figueiredo responded with a hard leg kick before looking for a takedown. Figueiredo secured a takedown but Sandhagen stood. Figueiredo tried to take his back but slipped off allowing Sandhagen to gain top position. Figueiredo isolated a leg. Sandhangen landed punches and got his leg free. Sandhagen delivered hard hammer fists. Figueiredo briefly looked for a knee bar but let it go. Sandhagen connected with punches standing over Figueiredo. MMAWeekly scored the round 10-9 for Sandhagen.
They exchanged leg kicks to start the second frame. Figueiredo stood in front of Sandhagen and absorbed leg kicks. He landed a counter right. hand. Sandhagen moved forward but was taken down. Sandhagen dropped back for a leg and used it to reverse the position. Figueiredo kicked Sandhagen off him and got to his feet. Sandhangen changed levels to secured a takedown. He stood over Figueiredo and delivered punches. He dropped down to a knee and connected with more punches and elbows. Figueiredo isolated a leg and used it to briefly gain top position. They scrambled. Figueiredo looked to have hurt his knee and rolled to his back. That’s it. Sandhagen wins via TKO.
The official time of the stoppage was 4:08 of the second round.
