Santiago Ponzinibbio’s mesmerizing offense, developing a textbook jab around his lethal Muay Thai base, gave the UFC a perfect fighter to stage its first trip to Argentina around.
On a crusade up the welterweight rankings, Ponzinibbio (26-3, ranked No. 10) headlines UFC Fight Night 140 against Neil Magny (21-6, No. 8) in his homeland at the Parque Roca Arena in Buenos Aires. But Ponzinibbio has been more concerned with taking shots at Rafael dos Anjos than his upcoming opponent, disregarding Magny: “He’s tough but I’ll kill him—I deserve a top-five guy.”
The UFC’s vehemently-criticized rankings board may not consider Magny as Top 5 material but he’s chock full of intangibles that Ponzinibbio is sorely overlooking.
To start, Magny has lost just twice in his previous eight bouts. One defeat was to the aforementioned dos Anjos—amid a warpath, cleaning up Magny, Tarec Saffiedine and Robbie Lawler in just six months—and the other to Lorenz Larkin, who also triumphed over Ponzinibbio.
Ponzinibbio, 32, and the bookies backing him (-340) should also be reminded of Magny’s reputation as one of the sport’s true road warriors. The 31-year-old American has competed for the UFC all over the globe. This includes Brazil, New Zealand, Philippines, Canada, Mexico, Australia and most recently the United Kingdom, leaving home-base in Colorado six months ago to crush Englishman Craig White in one round at UFC Liverpool. He was set to fight again in enemy territory opposite Brazilian Alex Oliveira at UFC Fight Night 137 before stepping into the main event slot in Argentina.
Magny, facing nearly 3-1 odds to pull one over on the Argentine faithful, is a force when underestimated. Following a humbling loss to Demian Maia in 2015 (snapping a seven-fight win streak for Magny), he upset Erick Silva on short-notice and then edged out middleweight contender Kelvin Gastelum by split-decision. In March 2016, Magny became the first man to ever stop Hector Lombard inside the distance, staging a huge comeback. Lombard’s rabid attack nearly put him away for good in the opening round. But fatigue and frustration set in over the next two rounds behind a flickering jab from Magny and his incredibly long arms, eventually stamping out the brutish Judoka with punches on the ground.
The tallest welterweight on the roster, Magny’s 80-inch reach is longer than some light heavyweights—Alexander Gustafsson for example. That gives him seven inches on Ponzinibbio. The Argentinian bruiser of course has outmaneuvered and outboxed lanky typecasts before—a mold Magny fits—behind feints, trap-setting, and that multifaceted jab. In 2017, he established himself as one of the sport’s premier welterweights when he cracked Gunnar Nelson in 82 seconds, and overpowered Mike Perry to a unanimous decision. But he’s far from perfect.
Until getting Perry to the ground, Ponzinibbio went nearly three years without hitting a single takedown. And he’s demonstrably susceptible to low kicks. Middling veteran Nordin Taleb stole the first round of their matchup at Fight Night 105 behind a series of body and outside leg kicks. Larkin also found success eating up Ponzinibbio’s legs, visibly slowing him down, before earning a knockout in the second period.
Ponzinibbio was under heavy fire against Perry too. After a tentative first round, Perry began backing him up in Round 2 with winging punches. Chased along the fence, Ponzinibbio threw a spinning back fist that clipped his opponent. The fight belonged to Ponzinibbio from there, pouring it on with punches and chopping leg kicks that nearly took Perry off his feet, culminating in a brutal final five minutes that saw both men badly bloodied. The Argentinian may have come out on top but a flinging shot in desperation like that hasn’t always panned out for him.
In 2014, Ponzinibbio did the same thing against Ryan LaFlare. Clearly a step behind in Round 3, Ponzinibbio was sucking on air, and flung another spinning blow that the Canadian wrestler ducked, easily grabbing a hold of Ponzinibbio and slamming him to the mat where he nearly stopped him with unanswered blows from top-position.
Similarly, Magny loves capitalizing in deep water, not only outlasting Lombard, but also Johny Hendricks at UFC 207. The former welterweight champion gassed and couldn’t keep up with Magny in the latter half of the bout, dropping a wide decision. The victory gave Magny yet another win over a blockbuster puncher. He can make it a trifecta against Ponzinibbio, who is no less a threat standing up—from a last-minute knockdown of Laflare to blowing up “Gunni” Nelson in just over a minute.
Consider however the controversy surrounding that Nelson KO. Twenty seconds into the bout, the karate stylist was rubbing his eye from an apparent eye poke, reportedly “seeing double” before Ponzinibbio finished him. Nelson later called the offense deliberate. Ahead of their meeting last year, Perry became aware of Ponzinibbio’s penchant for extending his fingers. “He literally tries to stick his fingers in people’s eyes,” Perry said. Ponzinibbio’s sneaky fingers claimed another victim just minutes into the fight. (Perry described the incident in this post-fight video.) For certain, his fingers were blatantly extended against Taleb and twice more against Laflare: once in Round 2 and so egregiously at the beginning of Round 3, referee Mario Yamasaki implored the injured party to take a recovery break. In the face of evidence, Ponzinibbio maintains he’s never done anything illegal in his UFC career.
Honest or not, nefarious or byproduct of a sport performed in fingerless gloves, Ponzinibbio is right about a few things. First, he without a doubt deserves an opportunity with the upper-echelon of the division. The UFC gave him just that, scheduling Ponzinibbio to meet the undefeated Kamaru Usman (ranked No. 6) before a thumb injury forced him to withdraw in April. Second, Magny is especially tough—fighting in the stacked 170-pound ranks for eight years and coming out the other end with an octagon record of 14-5, including wins over two titleholders in Hendricks and Carlos Condit.
Because of that, Ponzinibbio won’t dispose of Magny as easily as he thinks. Not overlooking him the way he has—that will cost him.
