With the UFC bantamweight title being contested next month 4th ranked Cory Sandhagen and 5th ranked Deiveson Figueiredo fought at UFC Des Moines in hopes of being set up at the next shot for the belt.
Sandhagen (17-5) has been close to the title shot a couple of times recently, but his best shot may have gone out the window when he lost to Umar Nurmagomedov last August. Sandhagen held onto a top 5 spot in the rankings, but was in danger of becoming a gatekeeper of sorts against Figueiredo.
Figueiredo (24-4-1) is the former UFC flyweight champion who made his way to 135 after dropping his title to Brandon Moreno in 2023. Since then he’s gone 4-1 with wins over Rob Font, Cody Garbrandt and Marlon Vera with his only loss against Petr Yan last November. ‘Figgy’ could get a shot at a second title, this time at 135, but he needed to get past Sandhagen to do it.
Round 1 Sandhagen immediately got his length into the fight with strikes then put Figueiredo onto the fence. Figueiredo defended well and they got back to striking. The Brazilian shot in for a takedown and ate a massive uppercut, but still got his opponent down. Too eager to take the back he fell off the top, but got right in on a leg lock.
Sandhagen didn’t panic and landed shots on Figueiredo from top position including some very unforgiving elbows. Lot of ground exchanges between the two, but it was a lot of Figueiredo looking for constant heel hooks. Sandhagen took the opportunity to score point on Figgy as the round ended.
Round 2 Figueiredo did not like the kicks to the lead leg so Sandhagen, naturally, worked to give him a healthy helping of them. Figueiredo’s game plan clearly was to get Sandhagen down, and he did it once again. Sandhagen turned the tables and grabbed a heel hook which he used to get top position and the fight to the feet.
Sandhagen scored a takedown of his own with just over 2 minutes left in the round and continued to land shots on Figueiredo.
During a grappling exchange with legs entangled Figueiredo suffered a knee injury which ended the fight.
Regardless of how it happened it’s a massive with for Cory Sandhagen.
Official Result: Cory Sandhagen def. Deiveson Figueiredo via R2 TKO (Injury), 4:08
