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          Figueiredo-Sandhagen, Nickal-de Ridder bouts top May 3 UFC card

          • Andreas HaleMar 13, 2025, 03:24 PM ET
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              Andreas Hale is a combat sports reporter at ESPN. Andreas covers MMA, boxing and pro wrestling. In Andreas' free time, he plays video games, obsesses over music and is a White Sox and 49ers fan. He is also a host for Sirius XM's Fight Nation. Before joining ESPN, Andreas was a senior writer at DAZN and Sporting News. He started his career as a music journalist for outlets including HipHopDX, The Grammys and Jay-Z's Life+Times. He is also an NAACP Image Award-nominated filmmaker as a producer for the animated short film "Bridges" in 2024.
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          Former UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo will face Cory Sandhagen in a five-round bantamweight fight when UFC Fight Night takes place at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa on May 3.

          The event will mark the UFC's first event in Iowa in 25 years.

          Figueiredo (24-4-1) is currently the UFC's No. 5 ranked bantamweight and is looking to bounce back from a decision loss to former champion Petr Yan in November. It was his first loss after moving up to bantamweight after losing the flyweight championship to Brandon Moreno in 2023. He is 3-1 in the division and hopes to move into title contention with a win.

          Sandhagen (17-5) is also looking to get back into the win column. He dropped a decision to Umar Nurmagomedov last August, which snapped a three-fight winning streak. Sandhagen is currently ranked as the No. 4 bantamweight by the UFC.

          In the co-main event, three-time NCAA Division I national champion Bo Nickal will face former ONE Championship two-division titleholder and the UFC's No. 13 ranked middleweight Reinier de Ridder.

          Nickal (7-0) has been pegged as a future champion after making his UFC debut in 2023 after going 2-0 on Dana White's Contender Series. Since his debut, he has gone 4-0 with three finishes. However, his last performance against Paul Craig at UFC 309 was criticized due to the tedious nature of how he earned the decision win. Nickal, 29, will have the opportunity to erase the bad taste from his last outing by taking on ONE's former light heavyweight and middleweight champion.

          De Ridder (19-2), 34, signed with the UFC in 2024 after a successful run in ONE where he won the promotion's middleweight title in 2020 and then added the light heavyweight championship in 2021 with both title wins coming against Aung La Nsang. He successfully defended the middleweight championship twice before dropping both titles in separate fights to Anatoly Malykhin in 2022 and 2024. "The Dutch Knight" won his next fight on the regional scene before signing with the UFC and has gone 2-0 with submission wins over Gerald Meerschaert and Kevin Holland.