DES MOINES - Canadian Gillian (The Savage) Robertson looks to climb the strawweight rankings after stopping Brazilian veteran Marina Rodriguez in the second round on the undercard of a UFC Fight Night show Saturday night.
It was a fourth straight win for Robertson, who went into the fight ranked 12th among UFC strawweight contenders while Rodriguez was No. 9.
“A lot of respect to Marina but I’m super-happy with my performance,” Robertson said after the fight.
“I want Amanda Lemos next,” she added, referencing the 37-year-old Brazilian who is tied for fourth in the strawweight rankings and lost a title shot to China’s Zhang Weili at UFC 292 in August 2023.
Canadian bantamweight Serhiy Sidey won a unanimous decision over American Cameron (The Baby-Faced Killa) Smotherman on the main card.
The main event at Wells Fargo Arena pitted American Cory (Sandman) Sandhagen, ranked fourth among bantamweight contenders, against No. 5 Deiveson Figueiredo of Brazil, a former flyweight champion now campaigning at 135 pounds.
Robertson (16-8-0) won all three of her fights in 2024, defeating Brazilians Polyana Viana and Luana Pinheiro, and American Michelle (The Karate Hottie) Waterson-Gomez.
The 29-year-old Robertson, who dropped to strawweight from flyweight (125 pounds) in early 2023, improved to 5-1-0 at 115 pounds. She is 13-6-0 in her UFC career.
The bout was a matchup of different styles with Robertson an elite grappler with nine submission wins and Rodriguez a striker with seven KOs. The ground specialist won on the night.
Robertson took Rodriguez down 90 seconds into the fight with a single-leg takedown and started hunting for a kimura while looking to escape half-guard while dropping some elbows from above.
Rodriguez tried to offer some of Richardson’s own medicine early in the second round, pulling the Canadian to the mat but was unable to hang on to an attempted choke. That left Robertson on top, administering punishment from the mount position until referee Bruce Allen stepped in at 2:07 of the round.
The 38-year-old Rodriguez (17-6-2) announced her retirement in the cage after the fight, her third straight loss and fifth in her last six outings. Before that she went 6-1-2 in the UFC.
Robertson was seven when her family left Niagara Falls, Ont., for Florida so her mother could take a nursing job. Robertson is now based out of Port St. Lucie.
The judges scored it 30-27, 29-28, 29-28 for Sidey (12-2-0), who sandwiched Smotherman against the fence when the two weren’t trading blows in the middle of the cage.
Smotherman finished the bout with a 58-55 edge in significant strikes, according to UFC Stats. But Sidey landed five of 12 takedown attempts over the three rounds.
Sidey is 2-1-0 in the UFC after earning his contract in September 2023 with a KO win over American Ramon (The Savage) Taveras on “Dana White’s Contender Series.” Taveras won the rematch via split decision at UFC 297 in º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøin January 2024.
The 28-year-old from Burlington, Ont., who came to Canada with his family from Ukraine when he was six years of age, bounced back in November with a split-decision win over American Garrett Armfield.
The 27-year-old Smotherman (12-5-0) won his UFC debut via decision over England’s Jake (White Kong) Hadley in October.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2025.
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