Santiago Ponzinibbio of American Top Team working hard to get back on track in UFC

Santiago Ponzinibbio (27-4) of American Top Team in Coconut Creek battles Miguel Baeza (10-0) of MMA Masters Miami in a welterweight bout at UFC Fight Night: Rozenstruik vs. Sakai, which is Saturday, June 5 on ESPN+ from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

In my video interview with Ponzinibbio, he discusses UFC, Miguel Baeza, American Top Team, Argentina, South Florida, soccer and more.

Ponzinibbio, 34, is the first Argentine born fighter to compete in UFC. His parents are of Italian heritage.

A soccer player as a youth, Ponzinibbio became interested in MMA, but his native country did not provide gyms to train in MMA. So he traveled to Florianópolis, Brazil, where he lived the first five months in a tent on a beach, doing odd jobs to make ends meet. He trained in MMA at several nearby gyms.

Ponzinibbio participated in “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 2.” That led to bigger and better, signing with UFC in 2013.

Ponzinibbio won seven consecutive fights but then a staph infection and later Covid put him on the sidelines for two-plus years. He returned in January but lost to Li Jingliang.

Ponzinibbio looks to rebound against Baeza.

During his win streak he beat Gunnar Nelson and Mike Perry. He also defeated Neil Magny in his homeland Buenos Aires. He collected two Performance of the Night bonuses.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SPonzinibbioMMA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sponzinibbiomma/

https://www.mmafighting.com/2021/1/14/22224692/fighting-for-my-life-santiago-ponzinibbio-ufc-li-jingliang-fight-island

https://www.espn.com/mma/fighter/_/id/3043484/santiago-ponzinibbio

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Jim Varsallone

Miami Herald

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Jim Varsallone writes a high school sports column twice a week, featuring top performers in all varsity sports (boys and girls) in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. He also covers pro wrestling, something he’s done since his college days in the late 1980s. Now in his fifth decade of coverage, he currently follows WWE (Raw, SmackDown and NXT), AEW, Ring of Honor, TNA Impact Wrestling, MLW, WOW, NWA, and the South Florida indies, mainly CCW. He writes MMA, too -- mostly profile stories and video interviews with American Top Team and Sanford MMA fighters in South Florida. As for pro wrestling, he writes feature stories and profile pieces, updates upcoming show schedules in South Florida, photographs the action and interviews talent (audio and video) -- sharing the content here and via social media on his Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channel: jim varsallone (jimmyv3 channel). Support my work with a digital subscription