“The God of War” is about to make history. This weekend at UFC 256, flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo will complete the shortest turnaround for a title fight in UFC history.
Twenty-one days. That is all that will have passed between his defeat of Alex Perez last month, and this Saturday’s main event. That’s a quicker turnaround than greats like Ronda Rousey and Ken Shamrock. But with all of three weeks between title fights, the short time frame has complicated preparations for opponent Brandon Moreno. Even if the challenger has had the exact same turnaround, after sharing the UFC 255 card with Figueiredo.
At least the weight cut seems to be taken care of, according to the champ. “The whole point was just maintaining my weight,” Figueiredo told Cageside Press during the UFC 256 media day on Wednesday. “I try not to gain as much weight after the fight, and just kind of keep it low. Apart from keeping the weight is just keeping my mindset to go out there and battle.”
Conservation might be the overall theme to Figueiredo’s second title fight. When it came to preparation for the bout, “having just twenty days we couldn’t train too hard, we couldn’t tire my body out too much,” the Brazilian admitted. “So we were doing a lot of technical training, twice a day, maintaining weight.”
The quick turnaround of course was to save the UFC 256 card. Title fights featuring Amanda Nunes vs. Megan Anderson, and Petr Yan vs. Aljamain Sterling, both fell through. But there’s a bit of a personal element as well.
“Brandon’s a guy that asked to fight with me before the Benavidez fight. That’s something that irritated and bothered me a little bit,” Figueiredo noted.
The quick turnaround, however, is something that he’s proud of. And he’s looking forward to winning again, “and taking two belts back to Brazil.”
Watch the full UFC 256 virtual media day pres scrum with Deiveson Figueiredo above. The event takes place this Saturday, December 12 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, NV.
