{"id":777460,"date":"2026-07-03T23:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T23:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/777460\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T23:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T23:59:09","slug":"ufc-abu-dhabi-adds-former-welterweight-contender-to-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/777460\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC Abu Dhabi adds former welterweight contender to lineup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Santiago Ponzinibbio returns to action at UFC Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The UFC <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/UFCEspanol\/status\/2073044328315027806\" rel=\"nofollow\">announced<\/a> Friday that Ponzinibbio (30-9) is set to fight England\u2019s Sam Patterson (14-3-1) in a welterweight bout on its July 25 Etihad Arena card. This marks Ponzinibbio\u2019s first fight since May 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Ponzinibbio, 39, was once on his way to a title shot after winning seven straight fights from 2015-2018. However, the Argentine was hindered by numerous health issues and then lost to Li Jingliang in a comeback fight in 2021. Since that defeat, Ponzinibbio has won just three of his past eight fights. In his most recent outing, he suffered a third-round knockout loss to Daniel Rodriguez.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">On the other side, Patterson also looks to regain momentum after a disappointing effort against Michael Page this past March. Not only did Patterson lose, but the bout was heavily criticized for its lack of action, as the friends and training partners appeared reluctant to engage. Prior to that setback, Patterson rattled off four straight wins, all by knockout or submission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">UFC Abu Dhabi is headlined by light heavyweight bout between former champion Magomed Ankalaev and Khalil Rountree Jr.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">See the updated UFC Abu Dhabi lineup below (bout order still to be finalized).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Magomed Ankalaev vs Khalil Rountree Jr.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Steve Erceg vs. Ramazan Temirov<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Rizvan Kuniev vs. Tyrell Fortune<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Islam Dulatov vs. Wellington Turman<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Santiago Ponzinibbio vs. Sam Patterson<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Ismael Bonfim vs. Axel Sola<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Valter Walker vs. Thomas Petersen<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Uran Satybaldiev vs. Dustin Jacoby<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Magomed Tuchalov vs. Brendson Ribeiro<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Magomed Zaynukov vs. Damian Rzepecki<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Mike Davis vs. Nurullo Aliev<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Santiago Ponzinibbio returns to action at UFC Abu Dhabi. The UFC announced Friday that Ponzinibbio (30-9) is set&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-777460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}