David Martinez Stays Undefeated in UFC With Decision Over Dan Ige
David Martinez stayed undefeated in the UFC on Saturday, taking a unanimous decision over Dan Ige in the Noche UFC main-card opener. Judges scored the bantamweight bout 30-27, 30-27, and 29-28 at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, extending the Mexican prospect’s winning streak to 11 fights.
Martinez improved to 15-1 overall and 4-0 inside the Octagon. Ige fell to 19-12 MMA and 11-11 in the UFC in his first appearance at 135 pounds.
The No. 7-ranked bantamweight entered as a heavy favorite against a longtime featherweight. Ige had dropped two straight at 145, including a first-round knockout loss to Melquizael Costa in February and a decision defeat to Patricio Freire last July.
Martinez, nicknamed “Black Spartan,” had already beaten Rob Font and former title challenger Marlon Vera by unanimous decision. Those wins, plus a first-round knockout of Saimon Oliveira in his UFC debut, built the unbeaten promotional record he carried into Mexican Independence Day weekend.
Ige, 35, was making a genuine weight-class change after years of mixing with bigger men. Martinez, 28, treated it as a chance to test himself against UFC experience without leaving the 135-pound picture.
“I am happy to welcome Dan Ige to bantamweight,” Martinez said before the fight. “This is a different division. He has good fights in the other division, he’s fought the biggest names in the other division. But this is a different division, with different people and different skills.”
The first round showed what he meant. Martinez circled, kicked the lead leg, and made Ige miss, then stunned him with a left hand as the Hawaiian veteran struggled to find a clean pocket.
Ige pressed and landed the occasional right. He still spent too much of the opening five minutes chasing a smaller, faster target who was already compromising the lead leg.
Round 2 stayed on that same track. Martinez kept chopping the legs, mixed in jabs, and blocked Ige’s attempts to close the distance, while the Glendale crowd began to boo the lack of extended exchanges.
The pace was controlled rather than chaotic. Ige could not pin Martinez down long enough to turn the fight into the kind of brawl that has defined much of his career.
Ige needed a finish in the third and came out with more urgency. He landed his best left of the night, only for Martinez to fire back, stun him, and return to the leg kicks that had already slowed the former featherweight.
A brief low blow halted the action, then Martinez caught a kick in the final minute and put Ige on the mat. Ige scrambled up, but the horn sounded on a fight that had already been decided.
Referee Blake Grice oversaw a 15-minute matchup that never became a firefight. Martinez’s movement, calf work, and late takedown gave the judges an easy path, even as one card came back 29-28 instead of a 30-27 sweep.
The result keeps Martinez perfect in the UFC and adds another veteran name to a résumé that already includes Font and Vera. At 15-1, with 10 of those wins by knockout or TKO before this decision-heavy stretch, he remains one of the more complete problems in the top 10 at 135.
It does not punch his ticket to a title fight on its own. Petr Yan holds the bantamweight championship, with Merab Dvalishvili, Song Yadong, Sean O’Malley, and Mario Bautista sitting above Martinez in the official rankings.
What it does is protect his climb. Beating a former featherweight contender on a Noche card, in front of a Mexican Independence Day audience, keeps the former Combate Global standout in the ranked mix without a blemish on his UFC record.
Ige’s first night at bantamweight ended in a third straight loss. The Hawaiian veteran still has finishing power, but he could not solve Martinez’s range or output over three rounds.
Noche UFC continued Saturday on Paramount+ with a main card that still featured Waldo Cortes-Acosta vs. Curtis Blaydes, Manon Fiorot vs. Alexa Grasso, and a Jean Silva-Jose Delgado headliner, while Martinez walks out of Glendale 4-0 in the UFC and still firmly in the bantamweight conversation.