DES MOINES - ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥ 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.
´ºÉ«Ö±²¥ 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 ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥ 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 Toronto in 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 ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥was first published May 3, 2025.
