Preview: UFC on ESPN 59 ‘Namajunas vs. Cortez’

Welterweights

Santiago Ponzinibbio (29-7, 11-6 UFC) vs. Muslim Salikhov (19-5, 6-4 UFC)

ODDS: Ponzinibbio (-205), Salikhov (+170)

Two old dogs look to recapture some magic here. Ponzinibbio had a middling start to his UFC career but eventually reeled off seven straight wins, capping things off with a dominant main event victory over Neil Magny to finish the UFC’s first card in his native Argentina back in 2018. It felt like a huge breakthrough moment for Ponzinibbio and a launching pad to some big things. Instead, it now feels like the end of Ponzinibbio’s peak. A career-threatening staph infection would cause Ponzinibbio to miss over two years, and he hasn’t been nearly the same fighter upon his return. His return bout against Jingliang Li was fairly dire—Ponzinibbio got knocked out within a round—but he has been a gamer in every fight since then. His reflexes are slower and he now takes a while to get warmed up, but he has able to gain steam as his fights go on and gut out some tough fights, taking Geoff Neal and Michel Pereira to split decision losses and scoring a late finish of Alex Morono. Things went the inverse against Kevin Holland in Ponzinibbio’s last bout 15 months ago—he was putting together a solid performance until Holland suddenly knocked him out—but the “Argentine Dagger” is still viable, even if the story of his career will likely center around what could have been. On the other side of the equation is Salikhov, who seems to be in a tougher spot at the moment. With the resume in wushu sanda to back up his “King of Kung Fu” nickname, Salikhov came to the UFC in 2017 with a solid amount of hype that was almost immediately deflated, as his promotional debut saw him get taken down and tapped out by Alex Garcia. Salikhov eventually found his level, sometimes with spectacular results. It might take some stretches of tedium for Salikhov to set things up and pick his spots, but he has been able to time some sensational knockouts. After capping off 2022 with one of those finishes against Andre Fialho, there is some worry that Salikhov might be falling off for good. A flat performance against Nicolas Dalby was understandable, but getting quickly knocked out by Randy Brown raises a whole new level of concern. Salikhov might wind up looking better against Ponzinibbio, who’s his slowest opponent in a while, but the Argentinian seems like the much more effective fighter in 2024, even if it might take him a while to get going. The pick is Ponzinibbio via third-round stoppage.

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Namajunas vs. Cortez
Ponzinibbio vs. Salikhov
Dober vs. Silva
Bonfim vs. Loosa
Rodriguez vs. Erosa
Alhassan vs. Brundage
The Prelims