A former UFC champion is officially moving up to a new weight class. MMA Fighting was the first to report today that former flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo (21-3-1) is officially moving up to 135 pounds and he will be taking on the dangerous Rob Font (20-7) in his bantamweight debut.
Starting with Font, he will be looking to bounce back after a loss in his last fight. Font impressively knocked out Adrian Yanez earlier this year and then was booked to face Song Yadong at UFC 292. However, after Song suffered an injury, Font needed a new fight. Around the same time, Umar Nurmagomedov pulled out of his main event against Cory Sandhagen.
Font and Sandhagen agreed to meet at a catchweight of 140 pounds at UFC Nashville. That night, Font couldn’t do anything to stop Cory Sandhagen from taking him down. It was a tough loss, but I don’t think Font loses a lot from that. I still think the performance to think about heading into this one is the knockout win over Yanez that happened back in April.
UFC Fight Night
It’s been a very interesting few years for former UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo. Figueiredo was on top of the world in 2020 having just won the flyweight title and dominating his first challenger in Alex Perez. That’s when the promotion asked him to take a very short-notice title fight against Brandon Moreno.
Moreno fought better than anyone thought he would and the two fought to a draw. In an immediate rematch, Figueiredo lost the belt to Moreno. The two would again immediately run things back and this time, Figueiredo won a decision. Figueiredo was out for a while due to an injury after that bout and Moreno won the interim title.
They fought for a fourth time back in January with Moreno largely dominating the fight and winning the belt. After that loss, Figueiredo said he’d move up to bantamweight. However, he was originally given a fight against Manel Kape at UFC 290, but Figueiredo wasn’t cleared to fight.
Then, there were rumors about him officially moving up to face Dominick Cruz, but that fight never materialized. Now, he finally has a date set and he has a tough opponent in front of him as he makes his 135 pound debut.