Santiago Ponzinibbio

Overview

Seven UFC wins in a row, five of them by decision or knockout over opponents who finished the job for him. Then a long, uneven stretch where the same chin that carried him through the early years started to give. Santiago Ponzinibbio, the "Argentine Dagger," is a welterweight with a 12-9 UFC record and 31-10 across all promotions, and the story of his run is a hot peak followed by a hard fall.

Seven of his twelve UFC wins came by KO/TKO, and none by submission. He carries two straight losses into his next fight.

Big power, real peak, rough recent stretch.

UFC Career

Ponzinibbio debuted on November 8, 2013, with a unanimous decision loss to Ryan LaFlare. He bounced back with a first-round TKO of Wendell Oliveira Marques in 1:20, then beat Sean Strickland on the cards. A second-round TKO loss to Lorenz Larkin in 2015 was the last setback before the run.

That run was his best stretch. From December 2015 through November 2018 he won seven straight, finishing Andreas Stahl and Court McGee in the first round and taking decisions over Zak Cummings and Nordine Taleb. He headlined twice in that span, and both main events ended in stoppages.

Then came a gap of more than two years, and a different record afterward. Since the streak ended he is 3-8, with five of those losses by KO/TKO and the rest by decision, two of them split. Li Jingliang stopped him in the first round in January 2021, and Kevin Holland, Daniel Rodriguez and Sam Patterson all finished him in later fights.

He still found wins in that stretch: a decision over Miguel Baeza, a third-round TKO of Alex Morono and another of Carlston Harris.

The knockouts that built him are now the ones he is on the wrong end of.

Fighting Style

Ponzinibbio is a busy striker who is hard to hit cleanly, though he still absorbs more than most and misses more often than the typical UFC fighter. He lands plenty and defends well, but his accuracy is not a strength.

His grappling profile is the contrast. He rarely shoots for takedowns and almost never hunts submissions, yet he is very hard to take down. He is a striker who stays on the feet, and his record backs it up: no submission wins and no submission losses.

His finishes come early or late. Four of his seven stoppages came in round 1, and the other three came in rounds 3 and 4. All seven were by knockout or TKO.

Notable Wins

• Gunnar Nelson — KO/TKO, round 1 (1:22), UFC Fight Night: Nelson vs. Ponzinibbio (2017), a main event and the one win over an elite opponent
• Neil Magny — KO/TKO, round 4, UFC Fight Night: Magny vs. Ponzinibbio (2018), a five-round main event
• Mike Perry — unanimous decision, UFC Fight Night: Lawler vs. Dos Anjos (2017)
• Court McGee — KO/TKO, round 1, UFC on FOX: Teixeira vs Evans (2016)

Quick Facts

• Division: Welterweight
• UFC record: 12-9 (7 KO/TKO, 5 decision)
• Professional record, all promotions: 31-10-0
• UFC debut: 2013
• Stance: Orthodox
• Height and reach: 6'0", 73"
• Team: American Top Team ATT Coconut Creek, FL
• Born: Argentina