UFC Des Moines Preview
The UFC is invading the Wells Fargo Arena on Saturday, May 5th for UFC Fight Night. The main event will be in the bantamweight division between former interim title challenger #4 Corey Sandhagen and former two-time flyweight champion #5 Deiveson Figueiredo.
Sandhagen is trying to rebound from a unanimous decision loss to Umar Nurmagomedov in August. Prior to that he had won three straight fights after losing an interim title fight to Petr Yan in 2021. The 33-year-old has not been able to win the fight that would have landed him a title shot. He believes another run at the title begins with a win over Figueiredo.
“The time to win the belt is now,” Sandhagen said. “A lot of the reason why I'm still kind of doing this whenever I need an extra push or motivation is I try to think of that 16, 17-year-old kid that was on the track running sprints on Thanksgiving and on Christmas and working his butt off because one day he wanted to be in the spot that I'm in right now. It's time to do it for me and for that kid.”
Sandhagen has key wins over Marlon Vera, Rob Font, Song Yadong and Frankie Edgar, but it is the losses that fuel him. “I try to just juice out the losses with as much good stuff as I can,” he said. “I'm in this for the long run. I have two goals. It's to be a world champion and then also to be the best martial artist that I can before I age out. One of those is unachievable, but winning the world title certainly is.”
While he is coming off a loss, Sandhagen did not let that stop him from getting back to working hard. “I worked my ass off from that loss up until now,” Sandhagen said. “The second I could start working out again, I was working out again. Me and Trevor, (it was) like we were in training camp. Learning, experimenting with new stuff, all of that. Trying to learn all of that. We worked real hard in that off-time, and it's going to come to light for sure.”
Along with the hard work, Sandhagen his driven by motivating others. “A big piece of why I'm doing this whole thing is because I think that there's no other better feeling in life than feeling inspired,” he said. “If I can make someone feel like they're like me and they can do something because I've done something, then that's a cool feeling.”
A win on Saturday puts Sandhagen back in the title conversation. A finish over Figueiredo will certainly put him at the top of that list.
Figueiredo is also coming off a loss in his last fight where he lost by unanimous decision to Petr Yan in November in one of the best fights of 2024. The 37-year-old is chasing history.
“I would love to be able to get the opportunity and get the title to be a double-champ one day,” Figueiredo said. “Also, (I want) to get my name to the Hall of Fame. I think these are goals that I have, and that's what I want, to I have my name written in the history of this division.”
The Brazilian believes a win over Sandhagen puts him in the position to make history. “The Top 5 is very deep,” Figueiredo said. “I think they're great fighters, experienced fighters, high level fighters. I think that anybody can have a title shot, and I think that with this win against Cory on Saturday, I think it puts me in line for a title shot. I believe I should have a chance to go for the title.”
The former champion knows he will not have an easy fight with Sandhagen. “I trained a lot to be ready for the versatility that he brings to the Octagon and also to be very aggressive against him,” Figueiredo said. “That's how I beat him. We did everything not to be surprised by any of his moves (and) to be very aggressive all the time to go at him.
“Cory is a guy that loves a marathon, loves to run around in the Octagon, so we trained for that.”
Figueiredo believes he knows how to claim victory on Saturday. “I've worked so much for this,” he said. “I've prepared myself. I visualize this guy moving around the Octagon with me, so I'm going to make that happen and get that win.”
The former two-time champion has already had a hall of fame worthy career, but a win over Sandhagen and challenging for the bantamweight title puts him into legendary status.
The rest of the main card on ESPN+ and ESPN:
Reinier de Ridder vs. Bo Nickal, middleweight
Santiago Ponzinibbio vs. Daniel Rodriguez, welterweight
Montel Jackson vs. Daniel Marcos, bantamweight
Cameron Smotherman vs. Serhiy Sidey, bantamweight
Jeremy Stephens vs. Mason Jones, lightweight
ESPN+/ESPN Prelims:
Yana Santos vs. Miesha Tate, bantamweight
Ryan Loder vs. Azamat Bekoev, middleweight
Marina Rodriguez vs. Gillian Robertson, strawweight
Gaston Bolanos vs. Quang Le, bantamweight
Thomas Petersen vs. Don’Tale Mayes, heavyweight
Juliana Miller vs. Ivana Petrovic, flyweight
