{"id":175181,"date":"2026-02-22T06:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T06:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/175181\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T06:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T06:40:13","slug":"melquizael-costa-spin-kick-tkos-dan-ige","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/175181\/","title":{"rendered":"Melquizael Costa spin-kick TKOs Dan Ige"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Feb. 21, 2026, 10:38 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Melquizael Costa is red hot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The skyrocket to the top continued Saturday at <a href=\"http:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/events\/ufc-fight-night-houston-strickland-vs-hernandez\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC Fight Night 267<\/a> when Costa (26-7 MMA, 7-2 UFC) became the first man to stop Dan Ige (19-11 MMA, 11-10 UFC) with a spinning back kick and punches at 4:56 of Round 1. The bout took place at Toyota Center in Houston.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Costa beautifully timed a spinning kick to the face of Ige just after the 10-second clacker hit. Ige dipped right into it and shot backward on the canvas as he covered up. Costa pounced and pounded away until referee Jacob Montalvo stepped in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Costa, 29, was MMA Junkie&#8217;s 2025 Under the Radar Fighter of the Year \u2013 but perhaps under-the-radar no more. The victory was Costa&#8217;s sixth victory in a row and likely sets him up for a major fight next time out. Costa even had a callout prepared as he respectfully challenged <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/fighters\/diego-lopes\/\" data-autotag=\"d1362b8a-796e-4b47-843f-157444c8e9f4\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Diego Lopes<\/a> to a fight \u2013 bringing up a regional debate over who has better ac\u0327ai\u0301.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Ige, 34, falls to 1-4 in his most recent five outings. However, he&#8217;s only lost to top featherweight talent. Other losses in the stretch include Lerone Murphy, Diego Lopes, and Patricio &#8220;Pitbull.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 267 results include:Melquizael Costa def. Dan Ige via TKO (Spinning kick) \u2013 Round 1, 4:56Serghei Spivac def. Ante Delija via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)Jacobe Smith def. Josiah Harrell via KO (ground-and-pound) \u2013\u00a0Round 1, 2:01Michel Pereira def. Zach Reese via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)Carlos Leal def. Chidi Njokuani via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)Alibi Idiris def. Ode Osbourne via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)Alden Coria def. Luis Gurule via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)Joselyne Edwards def. Nora Cornolle via submission (rear-naked choke) \u2013 Round 2, 2:42Punahele Soriano def. Ramiz Brahimaj via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani def. Phil Rowe via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)Jordan Leavitt def. Yadier del Valle via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)Carli Judice def. Juliana Miller via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)<img class=\"gnt_em_cp_cw_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771742413_756_88519197007-hag-ak-qj-ws-aa-zlo-n.jpg\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 21, 2026, 10:38 p.m. ET Melquizael Costa is red hot. The skyrocket to the top continued Saturday&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[33,56,58,57,58842,58843,61045,2518,185,44407,183,42,184,3054,46,216,36],"class_list":["post-175181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-accessfree","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-sstssportsufc","tag-sstsnufc","tag-tagdiego-lopes","tag-taghouston","tag-taglocal-affiliate-arts-entertainment","tag-tagmartial-arts","tag-tagonline-video","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsport-scores-statistics","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tx","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}