Sandhagen stops Figueiredo in UFC Des Moines main event
Cory Sandhagen put his fellow bantamweights on notice with a dominant performance against Deiveson Figueiredo.
Sandhagen stopped Figueiredo in the second round of the UFC Des Moines main event Saturday night. Figueiredo tapped out after suffering a knee injury during a ground exchange.
The finish came at the 4:03 mark of the round and was officially ruled a TKO win for Sandhagen.
"It wasn't a shame (how the fight ended)," Sandhagen said in his postfight interview. "If you don't know how to play 50/50 (guard), your knee gets popped. It happened to TJ (Dillashaw), it happened to Figgy. If you just don't know how to play that position, you lose. And I'm better there, so I put him there, I sat up, it popped, and that's how it goes."
Sandhagen was dominant from start to finish, outlanding Figueiredo 54-6 in significant strikes and 92-8 in total strikes. Sandhagen and Figueiredo secured two takedowns each.
Sandhagen got off to a terrific start in the first round. After Figueiredo tried to initiate a ground exchange, Sandhagen got on top and made him pay. Sandhagen pummeled Figueiredo with punches to the head throughout the rest of the stanza and defended his opponent's nonstop heel hook attempts.
Early in the second round, Sandhagen picked Figueiredo apart on the feet before taking him down again. Sandhagen continued to land ground-and-pound and appeared to be en route to a masterful win. In the final minute, he shredded Figueiredo's knee during an exchange on the mat and forced the Brazilian to tap.
Sandhagen, the No. 4-ranked bantamweight, bounced back from a unanimous decision loss to Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC Abu Dhabi last August. Sandhagen, 33, is now 4-1 in his last five Octagon appearances.
Sandhagen called for a title shot against the winner of Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O'Malley 2, which is scheduled to headline UFC 316 on June 7 in Newark.
"I'm ready to win that belt," Sandhagen said. "Sean O'Malley, Merab, I want the winner. I'll be the backup if they want. I've dreamed of being a world champion for more than half of my life now. UFC, please give me an opportunity to show how great I am to the whole world."
Figueiredo has now suffered back-to-back losses for the first time in his career. The 37-year-old is 3-2 since moving up to 135 pounds in 2023. Figueiredo came in as the No. 5-ranked bantamweight.