The UFC comes to des Moines while Cory Sandhagen Battles Diveson Figueiredo, with both men who want to go back to winning ways in the Octagon.
This is only the third time that the UFC has come to Iowa in the last quarter of century, and the patience of the fans has been rewarded with a big fight between two title candidates.
Cory Sandhagen and Deiveson Figueiredo try to bounce back from recent losses. Sandhagen comes from a defeat of Umar Nurmagomedov, while Petr Yan defeated Figueiredo to end his three-fighter wintreak for this collision.
It is warming up between the two, in which Sandhagen Roasting Figueiredo chatgpt uses in the structure at a hilarious moment, although he hope that he did not provoke his opponent too much.
Elsewhere on the map, a middleweight fight between Reinier de Ridder and Bo Nickal put their undefeated UFC stripes on the line on an exciting fight.
With De Ridder 13th in the ranking, he will be looking for a fight with middleweight champion DRICU DU PLESSIS in the future. Nickal, however, has 4 wins in a row since his UFC debut in 2023 and will be a tough challenge for the Dutchman.
Here is everything you need to know about what promises to be a fantastic evening of MMA action at UFC des Moines.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
What time does UFC des Moines start?
UFC des Moines takes place in the Wells Fargo Arena in des Moines, Iowa on 3 May 2025.
The event starts with preliminary rounds at 7:00 PM (ET), 4:00 PM (PT) and 12:00 AM (BST).
After this comes the main map at 10 p.m. (et), 7 p.m. (PT) and 3:00 am (BST).
How to look and live stream UFC des Moines?
In the US, both the Prelims and the main map of the event will be available to view on ESPN2 from 7 p.m. Fans can also stream the event on their mobile devices via ESPN+.
In the United Kingdom, fans from 12:00 can view the prelims via the UFC Fight Pass before they switch to TNT Sports for covering the main map from 3:00 am.
UFC des Moines – Who fights?
Main map
- Bantam weight: Cory Sandhagen vs. Deiveson Figueiredo
- Middleweight: Reinier de Ridder vs. Bo Nickal
- Welterweight: Santiago Ponzinibbio vs. Daniel Rodriguez
- Bantam weight: Montel Jackson vs. Daniel Marcos
- Bantam weight: Cameron Smotherman vs. Serhiy Sidey
- Lightweight: Jeremy Stephens vs. Mason Jones
Prelims
- Bantam weight for women: Yana Santos vs. Miesha Tate
- Middleweight: Ryan Loder vs. Azamat Bekoev
- Strawweight for ladies: Marina Rodriguez vs. Gillian Robertson
- Bantam weight: Gaston Bolaños vs. Quang Le
- Heavyweight: Thomas Petersen vs. Don'Tale Mayes
- Flying weight for women: Juliana Miller vs. Ivana Petrović
Cory Sandhagen sees a title shot in his future as soon as he beats Deaveson FigueIredo
As he spoke with Mmajunkie, Sandhagen admitted that he is sure that he is beating Figueiredo and thinks that the will catapults him to a title shot against Merab Dvalishvili.
Sandhagen said: “I am the only man in the top five who did not fight Merab. And then O'Malley is someone who beg people to see me fight for a very long time.
“I absolutely think that the way I believe I can defeat Figgy, I am pretty sure that it will be a performance that speaks very hard in favor that I get the next title shot.”
Sandhagen is currently in 4th place in the Bantam weight ranking, so a victory would be huge for his campaign for a title shot in the near future.