Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted April 20, 2025 Paid Members Posted April 20, 2025 (edited) Des Moines, Iowa hosts this lot… ESPN MAIN CARD Cory Sandhagen vs Deiveson Figueiredo Reinier De Ridder vs Bo Nickal Santiago Ponzinibbio vs Daniel Rodriguez Montel Jackson vs Daniel Marcos Cameron Smotherman vs Serhiy Sidey Jeremy Stephens vs Mason Jones ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS Yana Santos vs Miesha Tate Ryan Loder vs Azamat Bekoev Marina Rodriguez vs Gillian Robertson Gaston Bolanos vs Quang Le Don’Tale Mayes vs Thomas Petersen Juliana Miller vs Ivana Petrovic Think that’s a cracking card myself, just with a bit of a weird bout order. Feel like there are enough good fights there to make a stronger main card but there’s always a couple of fights that look out of place on these things. Whatever. Main and co-main are really good and I’m a big fan of that Jeremy Stephens vs Mason Jones fight. There’s enough here to sink the teeth into and it’s a show with an actual crowd which is always a bonus. I’ll take it. Cory Sandhagen vs Deiveson Figueiredo is basically the perfect Fight Night headliner to me. In my opinion, a Fight Night main event should always be a fight that would at least look at home on a PPV main card. This one certainly fits that criteria. They’re both coming off a loss but it’s Bantamweight, it’s two recognisable names, it’s two entertaining fighters and they’re both ranked. It’s both a fantastic fight on paper and there’s actually a point to it. Sandhagen’s ranked #4, Figgy’s at #5 as I’m typing this. The winner is very much back in the title hunt, the loser goes back to the drawing board. Good stuff. Sandhagen turns 33 just before this fight and he’s 17-5 with 10 finishes. We last saw him in August, losing on points in his 5 round main event against Umar Nurmagomedov in Abu Dhabi. From what I remember, Sandhagen didn’t even perform badly but it was one of those fights where Umar seemed to just be a step ahead throughout and got the better of pretty much every round. It was a clear decision for Umar on the scorecards by the end. Sandhagen was on a nice three fight winning streak going into that fight, beating Song Yadong, Chito Vera and Rob Font. That Umar loss obviously set him back big time though. I was actually hoping to see him fight Sean O’Malley next but we’re getting Merab vs O’Malley 2 for some reason. Either way, this Figgy fight gets no complaints from me. Figueiredo’s 37 now. No spring chicken for a lighter weight class fighter but I do feel like him moving up to 135lbs has extended his career a bit. By all accounts that cut to Flyweight was rough on him. I wasn’t sure what to make of him at Bantamweight though and I still think he looks undersized for the weight. But his punching power seems to have carried up and he’s done alright results-wise so what do I know? He racked up wins over Rob Font, Cody Garbrandt and Chito Vera initially after moving up in weight. Not too shabby at all. But he got derailed when he ran into Petr Yan in their 5 round main event on the Macau card in November. What a fight it was though. One of my favourite fights of 2024. But Figgy came up short on the judges scorecards and Yan got his hand raised. No shame losing to a former champion like Yan in a great fight but it was clear enough a decision in Yan’s favour that it did kind of feel like Figgy had found his level and hit his ceiling as a Bantamweight. It’s still a pretty high ceiling if it takes Petr Yan to stop your climb but, still, it seems that’s as far as he’s gonna go and a second division’s gold probably isn’t in his future. There was some talk of him moving back down to Flyweight to challenge Alexandre Pantoja in a rematch but obviously Figgy changed his mind on that. Could still see it happening at some point, especially if he loses at 135 again here, but we’ll see. It’d be a great fight but that weight cut isn’t gonna get any easier and he moved up for a reason. Love this fight. Make no mistake, two of the very best Bantamweights in the world. They’re just unfortunate to be around at the same time as the likes of Merab Dvalishvili, Umar Nurmagomedov and Petr Yan. The depth in that division is insane. When you’ve got two fighters the calibre of Sandhagen and Figgy pushed back to #4 and #5 deep in the rankings, it says it all. These guys would be champs in pretty much any other promotion’s Bantamweight division. Yet here they are not even going for bronze! Ridiculous division. Really feels like the title picture is wide open though. Merab’s been beating guys in such dominant fashion and now he’s starting to have to do rematches with those same guys. He’s running it back with O’Malley next. After that it could be Yan again. One thing both Sandman and Figgy have in their favour is they’re both fresh fights for Merab at a time when he’s running out of fresh challengers. An impressive performance or a highlight reel finish from either could potentially see them jump the queue and get themselves right back in the mix. Regardless, this is a great, great fight and it’s in front of an actual crowd! Reinier De Ridder vs Bo Nickal is a really intriguing co-main and, honestly, a fight I’m a little bit surprised they’ve actually made at this stage. I kind of felt like these were both guys the matchmakers would wanna build up gradually, especially Bo, but here we are. This is about as close as you’re gonna get in 2025 to the old school style vs style matchups of the SEG era in the early to mid 90s. It’s pretty much as pure a BJJ vs Wrestling clash as we’ve seen since probably the Demian Maia vs Ben Askren fight back in 2019. And I found that fight surprisingly enjoyable. Hopefully this’ll be something similar. Loving De Ridder so far in the UFC. Glad he’s getting to actually stay active after ONE basically left him on ice for big spells for a couple of years. At 34, he doesn’t have time to piss about and he was vocal when he signed with the UFC about his frustration with how ONE treated him. He made his UFC debut back in November, submitting Gerald Meerschaert in a sloppy but fun fight. Then he did the quick turnaround and got the first round sub over Kevin Holland at UFC 311 in January. Now he’s back just a few months later. He’s making up for lost time. He’ll have fought three times in just six months by the time this one’s done and dusted. Bo Nickal’s 29 years old, undefeated at 7-0 and a NCAA Division I wrestler. No doubt he’s a promising prospect but I’ve never fully bought what the UFC machine has been trying to sell with him. Just something about him hasn’t got me sold. I think everyone banging on and acting like it’s a foregone conclusion that he’s gonna be UFC champion hasn’t helped. But I’ve been really underwhelmed by a couple of his performances as well. He talks a big game and has mouthed off about a bunch of top Middleweights like Du Plessis, Adesanya and Khamzat but he takes nearly two full rounds to get Cody Brundage out of there. Then in his last fight on the MSG card in November, he went the distance with a 37 year old Paul Craig who was 0-3 coming in. Pretty sure he tried to pass it off like he ‘carried’ Craig to get some cage time but I’m not having that for a second. At this level, on a big UFC PPV, you’re not ‘carrying’ anyone. If Bo could’ve finished Craig, he would’ve jumped on the chance. Don’t get me wrong, I still think he’s got potential and it could all click for him yet. But based on what I’ve seen so far, I’m not convinced. Hopefully De Ridder throttles him and kills the hype. He’s the more likeable of the two by far and Bo could do with a humbling. Santiago Ponzinibbio vs Daniel Rodriguez isn’t really doing it for me. A few years ago I’d have been all in on this and it probably would’ve been a fun scrap. Not feeling it much in 2025 though. Maybe it’ll be a pleasant surprise but I’m not expecting much from it. Ponzinibbio’s definitely seen better days. At one point in time he was genuinely a fringe contender in the Welterweight division. Remember that? We’re going back to 2017/18 but he was on a winning streak, he was exciting to watch, he stopped Gunnar Nelson, beat Mike Perry, knocked out Neil Magny in front of a rabid home crowd in Argentina. Then he was all set to fight Robbie Lawler in 2019 but got hit by a horrible run of injuries and never fought again until 2021. He’s never quite recaptured that form since. He’s gone 3-5 since 2021. He comes into this fight off a TKO win over Carlston Harris in January but he’d lost two on the bounce before that. And at 38, it feels like he’s on borrowed time. D-Rod’s also 38 and, while he hasn’t had the injuries Ponz has, he’s floundering results-wise as well. He’s was on a 3 fight losing streak before finally clawing a win back over Alex Morono in October. It could be an entertaining fight, to be fair. It’s fair matchmaking if nothing else. It’s leading nowhere good though. Whoever wins this will probably just get fed to someone much younger and on the rise. Montel Jackson vs Daniel Marcos is alright. Not really grabbing me but it’s not a bad fight. Jackson’s been racking up the wins, to be fair, and he’s coming off back-to-back quick knockouts. So he’s earned a bump up the card. He’s 14-2 with 9 inside the distance and he’s on a 5 fight winning streak. In his last two fights he’s knocked out veteran Rani Yahya in a round and then sparked Da’Mon Blackshear in just 18 seconds on the Denver card last July. 18 seconds! He’s gone under the radar in the past, part probably because of card placement and part due to inactivity. But this was the kind of finish that could turn things around for him if he can capitalise on the momentum. Marcos is no easy fight though. He’s Peruvian, 32 years old and undefeated at 17-0-0-1 with 8 knockouts. Other than a No Contest against Aoriqileng last year, it’s been all wins. He’s beat some solid names like Davey Grant and Adrian Yanez but he hasn’t really wowed anyone or had that blowaway performance yet. This is an opportunity for both of them to make a statement. Main card, away from the Apex and in front of actual ticket buying fans etc. Cameron Smotherman vs Serhiy Sidey. Might be worth a watch. Haven’t seen enough of either really but I remember enjoying what I did see. Smotherman’s 27 years old, 12-4 with 7 finishes and made his UFC debut back in October, beating Jake Hadley by decision on just a couple of days notice. Wasn’t an amazing fight but impressive under the circumstances and I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do after a proper training camp. Sidey’s Canadian, 28 years old and 11-2 with 8 finishes. He debuted at UFC 297 last January and lost to Ramon Taveras in an entertaining bloodbath. He rebounded with a points win over Garrett Armfield on the Edmonton card in November. Jeremy Stephens vs Mason Jones is my pick as the ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** on this bad boy. Never would’ve predicted we’d be seeing this fight on a UFC card in 2025. Both are making their returns to the UFC here, both left a few years ago on losses, both went away and built themselves back up. Now they’re both back. Got a feeling this is gonna kind of feel like the unofficial ‘Peoples Main Event’ as well by the time fight week rolls around. Especially with Stephens being a Des Moines boy, born and raised. Jeremy Stephens has been doing his thing in BKFC lately. He just beat Eddie Alvarez by corner stoppage in his last fight in January. Last time we saw him in the UFC though, was July 2021, when he got submitted in a round by Mateusz Gamrot. He went 0-5-0-1 at the end of that UFC run and then signed with PFL and went 1-2 there. Not the best. He bounced around after that, had a couple of pro boxing matches, including a majority draw against Jose Aldo in 2023. He seemed to have found his niche in Bare Knuckle though. He went 3-0 with 2 stoppages in just over a year in BKFC. And the Alvarez win last time out might actually be the best name win of his career. I think everyone just assumed he’d keep going with BKFC and would probably see out the rest of his days as an active fighter there. So this announcement of him re-signing with the UFC kind of took me by surprise. At 38 years old, it seems a bit of a weird choice to bring him back. But I guess if they were going to, now makes sense with this card being in his hometown. Wales’ Mason Jones is heading into hostile territory here. Likeable guy and a good fighter but there’s not gonna be many cheering for him in Iowa, is there? He turns 30 just days before this fight and he’s 15-2-0-1 with 10 finishes. Another guy getting a second crack at the UFC, although his first stint was much shorter than Stephens’ 2007-2021 run. Jones signed with the UFC back in 2020 and came in with some buzz with him being 10-0 and a Cage Warriors double champion at the time. It was a bit of a weird stint though. Immediately in his debut he suffered his first defeat, losing on points to Mike Davis. It was a really good fight but, still, a loss in his Octagon debut obviously wasn’t ideal. In the end he fought four times in the UFC, went 1-2-0-1 and was let go after dropping a decision to Ludovit Klein in July 2022. Following his release, he went back to Cage Warriors and racked up four straight wins, three by KO/TKO, and here we are. So a bit of a funny one this. Both making their returns but they’re both in different stages of their careers. For Stephens this kind of feels like the UFC are doing him a bit of a solid. He can’t have a ton of fights left so it’s a cool moment for him getting to come back in front of his home crowd. But Jones still has time to make a proper run. Whether he can or not remains to be seen but he’s got time and he’s coming back with some momentum. Should be a fun fight as well. Yana Santos vs Miesha Tate is happening. Not expecting anything from this. Never been a fan of Santos. Nothing against her. I’m sure she’s a nice woman and her husband Thiago Santos has always seemed like one of the few true good eggs in MMA. But she’s no fun to watch. She’s 35 years old now, 15-8-0-1 and she’s been on the UFC roster since 2018 yet I couldn’t tell you anything about any of her fights, other than she once got smashed up in a round by Cyborg in a PPV main event. ‘Cupcake’ Tate is back. She’s the opposite of Santos for me. She’s had a bunch of fun and memorable fights. She’s always mostly gonna be remembered for the rivalry with Ronda Rousey but you go back through her career. The come from behind submission over Marloes Coenen to win the Strikeforce title in 2011. The absolute barnburner she had against Julie Kedzie in 2012. The forgotten corker against Cat Zingano in her UFC debut in 2013. The come from behind submission over Holly Holm to win the UFC title in 2016. She was a proper scrapper and tough as fuck in her prime, definitely not just a pretty face. But she’s 38 now, she’s 2-4 in her last 6, she’s had a few layoffs including a retirement from 2016-21, she’s been bouncing between Flyweight and Bantamweight since her return. It’s all just felt a bit desperate. She did win her last fight, submitting Julia Avila, and looked dominant. But that was December 2023. Not sure why she was inactive all last year but a year off in your late 30s? Don’t know what we’re getting here. Santos isn’t much good. Miesha at her best beats her all day, twice on Sunday. But I’m not sure what she’s got left at this point. All the hard fights, all the going up and down in weight, 38 years old etc. Can’t see it lasting much longer. Ryan Loder vs Azamat Bekoev is one I’ll definitely be checking out. Can’t say I remember much about Loder. He’s 33 years old, 7-1 and was on the last season of TUF but lost to Robert Valentin in the finals last August. I know I saw that fight but can’t remember much. It’s Bekoev I’m keeping an eye on here… He made his Octagon debut at UFC 311 in January and absolutely wrecked Zach Reese with vicious ground and pound in the first round. He’s 19-3 with 15 of his wins not requiring judges, Russian but trains at American Top Team. Looked a bit of a handful in his debut but the jury’s out until we see him against better competition. I’m interested to see more out of him though so I’ll be giving this a look. Marina Rodriguez vs Gillian Robertson is alright. Not particularly arsed about it but it’s decent enough prelim filler, I guess. Rodriguez actually didn’t seem far off title contention at one point not too long ago. Seems like a distant memory now but back when she was knocking out Amanda Ribas and beating Mackenzie Dern in a Fight Night main event, it seemed like a matter of time until she at least got a shot at UFC gold. That ship’s well and truly sailed now though. She turns 38 just before this fight and she’s 1-4 in her last 5. Canada’s Robertson is 29 years old and 15-8 with 11 finishes. Never rated her too highly but she’s decent for her level. She’s on a three fight win streak now and I get the feeling she might be catching Rodriguez at the right time. Gaston Bolanos vs Quang Le. Not a lot to say. Just filler really but could be decent. Neither are going anywhere at this point but I remember enjoying most of what I’ve seen of Bolanos, win or lose. His last couple against Marcus McGhee and Cortavious Romious were a lot of fun if I’m remembering right. He’s 8-4 now with 6 by KO/TKO. Le’s Vietnamese, 33 years old and 8-2 with 5 finishes. He’s fought twice in the UFC so far and has gone 0-2 with losses to Chris Gutierrez and Xiao Long. Don’Tale Mayes vs Thomas Petersen. Ahh, fuck off. Can’t they keep this shite confined to the Apex where it belongs? You know this is gonna be rotten. Mayes is 11-8-0-1 and has lost 3 of his last 4 fights. He’s coming into this fight off the back of consecutive losses to Shamil Gaziev and Valter Walker. And Petersen’s 9-3 and coming off being knocked out in a round by Gaziev. That’s your background on this one. Can’t be arsed to even moan anymore about it. Very much doubt I’ll be sitting through this. Pretty much a guaranteed stinker. Juliana Miller vs Ivana Petrovic. Nowt to see here. Miller’s crap from what I remember and looking her up, her 3-3 record backs that up. She won TUF a few years ago, which is a bit of a damning indictment on that show. And I actually remember her looking decent in the finals. I guess her opponent must’ve just been that bad though. She’s gone 0-2 since and hasn’t fought since 2023. Can’t say I’ve seen enough of Petrovic to judge one way or the other, to be fair to her. She’s Norwegian/Croatian, 30 years old and 7-2 with 6 finishes. She does have UFC losses to Luana Carolina and Jamey-Lyn Horth though, so my expectations aren’t exactly high. Me settling in to watch this… Edited April 25, 2025 by wandshogun09 Quote
Zebra Kid Mark Posted May 3, 2025 Posted May 3, 2025 Very nice little card. I know Tate doesn't have much left in her but I have always enjoyed her fights and she seems a decent person outside of the cage so I will be cheering her on when I watch it. Jones vs Stephens is so random but so great, hopefully they fight their typical exciting fight, they both know how to bring the way, however, I wouldn't begrudge either of them from playing it safe and trying to win smartly. A loss for either of these 2 probably means either going back to the regional circuit or back to BKFC. I picked Sandhagen in the main purely because I think he's bigger and better. But that's exactly what I said about Chito Vera when he fought Figgy and I was wrong there. I predict a 5 rounder either way. I also think Bo Nickel will win in the co-main but that is more 50/50 for me. I think it could go either way. Quote
kev2050 Posted May 3, 2025 Posted May 3, 2025 I'm quite looking forward to this one. Mainly posting just to once again thank Wand for these little write ups, sometimes these are my only build up to the events, and they really help me get invested in the card. We don't get much engagement on here any more, but I really hope you continue to do these! Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted May 3, 2025 Paid Members Posted May 3, 2025 More excited for Mason Jones/Jeremy Stephens than anything else. Just cant see Figgy getting anything going against Sandhagan. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted May 3, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted May 3, 2025 1 hour ago, kev2050 said: I'm quite looking forward to this one. Mainly posting just to once again thank Wand for these little write ups, sometimes these are my only build up to the events, and they really help me get invested in the card. We don't get much engagement on here any more, but I really hope you continue to do these! Thanks Kev. And yeah I’m definitely gonna continue to do the opening posts, just not for Apex cards anymore because they’re becoming soul destroying ? I’ll still be doing my usual write ups for the PPVs and Fight Nights like this which are in front of actual crowds. While I’m here… Quote
Paid Members Bus Surfer Posted May 4, 2025 Paid Members Posted May 4, 2025 I skimmed through but Mason Jones had a very nice showing against Stephens. First 2 rounds were cracking. He got a rough run out last time but I hope he sticks round for a bit now. He's probably not gonna make too many waves, but he's usually a safe bet for a fun fight. Our Welsh Justin Gaethje. Sandhagen looked very good again and hopefully he'll get his shot now. Injury like that is absolute rough for Figgy - fingers crossed it's not hugely serious. Bo Nickal haters are rejoicing right now. He didn't look great, but RDR looked dialed in. What a lovely showing that was. That final knee shot was brutal. Would love to see him put a similar beating on Strickland. Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted May 6, 2025 Paid Members Posted May 6, 2025 In hindsight, that De Ridder win shouldn't have been surprising. My man is only a couple of years removed from being double champ in One, this was a massive step up for Bo. Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted May 7, 2025 Paid Members Posted May 7, 2025 Didnt see it, but i likes Azamat Bekoev, strong twitter game too. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted May 9, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted May 9, 2025 Yeah, Sandhagen looked good in the main event. Bit of an anti-climax how it ended but it wasn’t some freak injury. They were both fucking around going for leg locks pretty much the whole fight and Sandhagen’s assessment in the post-fight interview was cold and brutal but also correct, he was just better in that position and Figgy unfortunately got his knee messed up. It’s shit but that’s the risk you run whenever you start committing to going after legs like that. Rough for Figgy though. Don’t know how bad the injury is but it didn’t look good and at 37 years old, you have to wonder how he comes back from this. This feels like the beginning of the end for him. As for Sandhagen, he’s ranked #4 now with only Umar Nurmagomedov, Petr Yan and Sean O’Malley above him. Depending on how this Merab vs O’Malley rematch goes in a few weeks, I honestly wouldn’t rule out Sandhagen getting the next title shot just because he’s the only fresh challenger in the Top 5 for Merab now and he’s coming off a finish. I saw Yan mentioned him and Sandhagen rematching as well and I wouldn’t be against that either. That feels like it’d properly cement a #1 contender, although I don’t know who that leaves Umar with. There’s a bunch of ways it can go but this win puts Sandhagen right back in the mix. Really enjoyed seeing Reinier De Ridder humble Bo Nickal in the co-main. Very satisfying to watch. I’ve never been fully sold on Bo. Not that I think he’s shit or anything, I just never really bought into the hype and him talking all that shit about all the top Middleweights as soon as he got in the door, I couldn’t help but wanna see him get a humbling. K-1 De Ridder with the gutbuster. Lovely stuff. It does actually seem to have legitimately humbled Bo as well. Whether that lasts or not remains to be seen but he’s done interviews since and seems to have a healthy attitude towards the loss and wanting to improve and learn from it. Maybe this loss will end up being a blessing in disguise and the thing which really forces him to step up his game. Loving De Ridder though. He’s been a great addition to the 185 division. I’ve been down on Middleweight for a while but he’s helped freshen things up recently. Much needed. And he’s not fucking about. There’s already talk that De Ridder vs Robert Whittaker is in the works! Daniel Rodriguez vs Santiago Ponzinibbio was alright, nothing amazing but probably about as good as you’re gonna get out of these two at this stage. Nice finish from D-Rod in the third… Ponz looks about done to me though. There’s still guys he’ll beat on the roster but that’s because they’ve got a load of shite at the lower end of the roster these days. But it’s clear he can’t really hang or get the results at the level he did years ago anymore. Rodriguez is no spring chicken himself but he’s got less miles on him at least and that was probably the deciding factor here. Mason Jones vs Jeremy Stephens was a good scrap as expected. There was no FOTN bonus given again here but this would’ve got it for me. Cracking fight. Happy to see Jones get the win. It’s the result that kind of should happen at this stage. He’s the younger and fresher fighter and this fight showed he’s the more well rounded of the two as well. Hopefully he can build off this now and go on a better run than his last stint. This was definitely his best UFC win to date anyway. Not sure what you do with Stephens now. I doubt this was a ‘one and done’ because the UFC don’t really operate like that. Wouldn’t mind seeing him in with some of the fellow tough old veterans like Jim Miller and Bobby Green though. Give Jones another fun fight with someone like Esteban Ribovics or Elves Brener maybe. I don’t know. Might not make sense with those guys coming off losses but they’d be fun fights. Not too much of note from what I saw of the prelims. Thought Miesha Tate looked bad. Think it’s time to retire. Again. I’ve seen a few tweets and comments trying to put a more positive spin on it, talking about the ring rust being gone now and she’ll be better next time. But she’s 38 now and Yana Santos isn’t much good. If Miesha can’t win at this level and she’s closing in on 40, what are we doing here? If she can’t do better than this against someone like Santos, imagine what a Kayla Harrison or a returning Amanda Nunes would do to her? Fuck, pains me to say it but Julianna Pena probably beats this version of Tate. She looks beyond washed up to me. Truthfully she hasn’t been the same since she retired and came back the first time. Azamat Bekoev made short work of Ryan Loder. Just smashed him in less than three minutes. Bekoev’s one to keep an eye on. That’s back-to-back first round knockouts since signing with the UFC and he seems a fun character so far on Twitter. So of course I’m just waiting for him to be outed as a wrong’un any day now. That’s usually how it goes, isn’t it? So far though, I like him. And Gillian Robertson extended her little win streak with an easy ground and pound TKO, sending Marina Rodriguez into retirement. OK card, had its moments. Quote
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