Santiago Ponzinibbio and Muslim Salikhov have agreed to fight at UFC Denver. The fight will be at welterweight and will go down July 13 at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado.
News of the match-up was first reported by the UFC (@UFCEspanol) via X, formerly known as Twitter, on Friday.
The pair of welterweights were originally scheduled to fight back in January of 2021. But that fight was cancelled thanks to Salikhov still having lingering COVID-19 symptoms. Ponzinibbio instead fought, Li Jingliang, suffering a first-round finish defeat. The result snapped Ponzinibbio’s seven-fight win streak.
Santiago Ponzinibbio (29-7) has lost four of his last six fights dating back to his return from a long layoff due to a near fatal infection between 2018 and 2021. The 37-year-old has tallied victories against Miguel Baeza and most recently, Alex Morono during that six-fight stretch.
Muslim Salikhov (19-5) has lost three of his last four fights. The 39-year-old was last in action earlier this year when he was KO’d by Randy Brown in the opening round. Muslim, much like his future opponent, was also finished by Li Jingliang but in 2022. Halting a five-fight win streak dating back to his second fight with the UFC.
Salikhov’s most recent win was an exciting third-round finish against Andre Fialho in November of 2022 as he will look to recover from his two-fight skid on July 13th.
Earlier this month, top ten women’s flyweight’s Rose Namajunas and Maycee Barber agreed to fight as the main event of UFC Denver. With the announcement of Ponzinibbio vs. Salikhov, there are now eight scheduled bouts for the July 13 card which is shaping up to look like this:
- Rose Namajunas vs. Maycee Barber
- Luana Santos vs. Mariya Agapova
- Viviane Araujo vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius
- Gabriel Bonfim vs. Ange Loosa
- Mike Malott vs. Gilbert Urbina
- Cody Brundage vs. Abdul Razak Alhassan
- Christian Rodriguez vs. Julian Erosa
- Santiago Ponzinibbio vs. Muslim Salikhov
