Argentina’s Santiago Ponzinibbio pays tribute to Diego Maradona at UFC on ABC 1 weigh-ins

Santiago Ponzinibbio could be forgiven for feeling a little emotional heading into his bout with Li Jingliang at UFC on ABC 1 on Saturday night.

The Argentine welterweight will be making his first appearance inside the UFC octagon since his fourth-round knockout of Neil Magny back in November 2018. Since that win, a succession of unfortunate luck with illness threatened not just to delay his return, but threaten his entire career, as he battled a staph infection, then a bone infection in his leg.

Now Ponzinibbio is back to full fitness and ready to go. He made weight at Friday’s official weigh-ins after tipping the scale at 171 pounds, then, during his faceoff with Jingliang, produced a banner paying tribute to Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona, who passed away in November.

For the initiated, Maradona is considered a deity in his homeland, and led a largely workmanlike Argentina side all the way to win the 1986 World Cup, as he almost single-handedly dragged the team to the title in Mexico.

Ponzinibbio will be the first to admit that he will never achieve the god-like status of the man considered by many to be soccer’s greatest-ever player, but he’ll hope to do his bit to lift sporting spirits back home with a win on his return on “UFC Fight Island” on Saturday night.

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