Ponzinibbio Recovered From an Early Knockdown to Stop Harris
Santiago Ponzinibbio stopped Carlston Harris in the third round of their UFC APEX co-main event on January 11, 2025. The welterweight contest in Las Vegas ended at 3:13 after Ponzinibbio recovered from an opening-round knockdown and increased his pressure.
Harris created the first serious danger
Harris used his reach to land early and dropped Ponzinibbio during the first round. The Argentine survived the follow-up attack and reached the break, giving himself an opportunity to recover.
As the contest progressed, Ponzinibbio began finding his own combinations more consistently. His willingness to keep advancing changed a fight that initially appeared to favor Harris’s longer attacks.
The finish came with Harris still standing
Ponzinibbio connected repeatedly during the third round as Harris began to fade. Referee Kerry Hatley stepped between the fighters during a sustained punching attack, awarding Ponzinibbio the technical knockout.
Harris objected to the timing afterward, saying he believed the intervention came early. His disagreement did not change the official outcome: Ponzinibbio had secured the stoppage after surviving the earlier trouble.
A difficult stretch ended with a victory
Ponzinibbio entered following a knockout loss to Kevin Holland in April 2023 and a split-decision defeat against Muslim Salikhov in July 2024. The Harris result ended that two-fight losing sequence.
His previous win had also come through a third-round finish, against Alex Morono in December 2022. Against Harris, another late attack supplied a successful return after a demanding opening round.
Sources
- MMA Fighting: knockdown, comeback, referee intervention and Harris’s response
- UFC: Harris result and preceding fights
- UFC: date, venue and official finish
