By Brandon Clark
The UFC travelled to Latin-America for Fight Night 140 in Bueno Aires, Argentina.
Those in attendance witnessed an exciting main card, capped off by their countryman Santiago Ponzinibbio getting the win over Neil Magny in the headliner.
Ponzinibbio bullied Magny the whole fight, continuously flooring him with repeated leg kicks.
In the fourth round, Herb Dean warned Magny he’d stop the contest if he fell to another leg kick, and perhaps this focus down low, allowed Ponzinibbio to slip a devastating right hand past Magny’s guard, knocking him out cold.
Earlier in the evening, Cynthia Calvillo got the main card underway with a first round rear-naked choke win over Polaina Botehlo in the Women’s Strawweight bout.
Calvillo shocked the MMA community at the weigh-ins yesterday, appearing extremely weak while coming in two pounds over the 115 lb limit.
This increased calls for the UFC to change the rules over weight cutting, similar to how One Championship has avoided such issues.
Despite that, Calvillo looked in much better health during the fight, and gave a touching tribute to her late grandfather in her post-fight interview.
In the following Men’s Bantamweight fight, Marlon Vera made an impressive comeback to get the win against Argentinian Guido Cannetti.
Vera looked second-best for all of the first round, but after being told to wake up by his trainer during the break, he came out and dominated in the second, also getting a choke submission to the disappointment of the Argentinian crowd.
Also on the card:
Ian Heinisch made a successful start to his UFC career with a gritty decision win against battle-hardened Cezar Ferreira.
The well-named Johnny Walker got a devastating knockout win in his Light Heavyweight fight against Khalil Rountree, with a brutal elbow in the first.
Ricardo Lamas put the damage on Darren ‘The Damage’ Elkins, with a TKO in the final round of the co-headliner.
