The UFC is really starting to stack the deck for their International Fight Week card. We’ve already learned that the title unification bout between Alexander Volkanovski and Yair Rodriguez will take place on that card. Yesterday, we learned that the flyweight title fight between Brandon Moreno and Alexandre Pantoja will be on the card.
Now, today we learned that a former UFC champion will also be fighting on that card. ESPN Deportes was the first to report this morning that former flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo (21-3-1) will be taking on top contender Manel Kape (18-6) on the card.
Originally, there was talk about Figueiredo moving up to 135 after he lost to Brandon Moreno earlier this year in their fourth fight. In fact, Figueiredo took off his gloves inside the octagon and said he was done with flyweight. However, recently it started coming out that he’s wanting to stay at flyweight and now we know that’s where his next fight will be.
UFC 290
For Figueiredo, this will be the first time he’s fought someone not named Brandon Moreno since November 2020 when he ran through Alex Perez in their title fight. He then had four straight fights with Moreno where he went 1-2-1. Granted, the one fight that was a draw would’ve gone to him had he not had a point taken away.
He was stopped after the third round of their fight in January due to an eye injury. Now, he’s getting to take on a top contender and maybe we will see a more hungry Figueiredo now that he has a fresh face in front of him. There seemed to be some fatigue with fighting Moreno.
Manel Kape had a lot of hype behind him when he entered the UFC. The former RIZIN champion went right to the top of the division when he took on Alexandre Pantoja. He lost by decision and then lost a close split decision to top contender Matheus Nicolau.
However, since then, he’s been perfect. 3-0 which includes two first round wins. This is the biggest fight of Kape’s career. If he can go in there and beat the former champion Figueiredo, he’s going to be right in the mix for the next shot at the flyweight title.