UFC Des Moines: Sandhagen vs. Figueiredo picks and predictions

See who we think will win this Saturday in Iowa.

Art by Chris Rini.

The UFC rolls into one of the spiritual homes of US MMA this weekend, Iowa. The main event involves two guys with zero connection to the area, though. It’s still a good fight, with Colorado’s Cory Sandhagen taking on former UFC flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo.

The co-main is highly touted prospect Bo Nickal getting his stiffest test to date. He’s draw former ONE champ Reinier de Ridder.

The main card also has Santiago Ponzinibbio vs. Daniel Rodriguez, Montel Jackson vs. Daniel Marcos, Cameron Smotherman vs. Serhiy Sidey and Jeremy Stephens (!) vs. Mason Jones.

The prelims has an appearance from Miesha Tate. She takes on Yana Santos.

So… not a terrible card, really. Though, I think Kansas City got a better one last week.

As always we’ve looked over these fights and made our picks. And, as always, we’re going to be pretty accurate with them. As a squad we went 80-31 last week (.720). All of us are over .600 on the year, too (Kid Nate is actually .675 at picking fights!).

Go check out who we are picking this week. If you’re using this info for betting, though, please do so responsibly.

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Cory Sandhagen (-550) vs. Deiveson Figueiredo (+375)

Blaine Henry: Cory Sandhagen has lost every important fight of his career against former or future champions sans the ghost of Frankie Edgar. Deiveson Figueiredo is a former champion. But this fight will play into Sandhagen’s hands. Figueiredo has had a wrestling-heavy approach during his bantamweight stint. Sandhagen has shown the ability to neutralize a wrestler against Umar Nurmagomedov…