Flyweight Champ Deiveson Figueiredo Credits “Power of Teamwork” for UFC 270 Success

Anaheim, CA — Deiveson Figueiredo evened his series with Brandon Moreno at UFC 270, with both fighters holding a win over the other, plus a draw in their first fight.

The back-and-forth flyweight title fight went to the judges again, the pair now having spent a full 75 minutes in the cage with each other. Figueiredo (21-2-1) took it on the scorecards, 48-47 from all three judges. Afterwards, Moreno, who lost the belt back to the Brazilian, suggested he’d done enough to win.

“I mean, there were five knockdowns. It was 4-1,” Figueiredo countered following the bout, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press backstage at the Honda Center in Anaheim. “They could’ve just given me every round.”

While Figueiredo is confident in the win, he knows a fourth meeting with Moreno is possible. After having his hand raised, he actually called for a fourth fight — in Moreno’s home country, Mexico. Though the “God of War” might just be having second thoughts about the location, especially with a Brazil card likely for May.

“I initially said Mexico, but I think if we go into Mexico with [Henry] Cejudo next to us, we might not leave,” Figueiredo joked. “So I think we’re considering Brazil may be a better option.”

Cejudo’s presence in Figueiredo’s corner, as well as Eric Albarracin’s, was a major change for Deiveson Figueiredo ahead of UFC 270. The now two-time UFC flyweight champion joined Fight Ready in Arizona, and showed a more measured approach in the fight itself.

That was at the behest of his new team, he explained.

“It was the strategy no doubt, and it shows, because it was a team effort,” Figueiredo said when asked about the source of his improvements. “It shows the power of teamwork and actually having a team, because I trust them a lot. They said this all along, just to keep the patience, and stay put until the two minutes [were] remaining in the fight, then I could be myself: aggressive and violent.”

“We focused a lot on being calm, because I used to come into the octagon so full of energy, trying to finish people off right in the first minutes,” he later added. “It was very important to us to keep calm and become even more dangerous. Because then, my strikes would come as a surprise to him. he would not know, because I had that power kind of bottling up. I became more dangerous, because my strikes surprised him. This was something we focused on a lot actually, to keep things calm to be more dangerous and better.”

Watch the full UFC 270 post-fight press conference with Deiveson Figueiredo above. More coverage from the event can be found below.