Deiveson Figueiredo revealed in an interview with Laerte Viana that he would be willing to rematch flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja.
The two first met in July of 2019 at UFC240 when Figueiredo won via unanimous decision. Despite a clean sweep on the scorecards, the pair were awarded Fight of the Night honours. Figueiredo (24-4-1) went on to become a two-time champion and moved up to bantamweight after dropping the belt to Brandon Moreno for the second time.
Pantoja has since gone 8-1, including the 7-fight win streak he’s currently on. With the champion being 7-0 against the current top 10 of his division (9-0 including The Ultimate Fighter matches), there isn’t a clear #1 contender for him to fight. There is a case to be made for Kai Kara-France whose loss to Pantoja was an exhibition match on TUF, which doesn’t show up on his professional record. However, his knockout of Steve Erceg in August was his first win in over two years; not exactly screaming “title shot” with a bullet. With a card in the Oceanic region in February, it wouldn’t be a travesty to have Kara-France fight once more before anointing him as the next contender.
With his resume as a two-time champion of the division and a win over the current champion, Figueiredo’s case could be argued to be stronger than Kara-France’s. Though, some might point to his recent loss to Petr Yan, as well as his last flyweight fight also being a loss. We do have to keep in mind that it is not uncommon for former champions to get title shots coming off losses. We have seen it three times this very year with Israel Adesanya, Julianna Peña and Stipe Miocic. All three were granted title shots despite none of their matchups being immediate rematches. With that precedent established and the current state of the flyweight division, Figueiredo’s case for a shot at Pantoja may be a lot stronger than most initially thought.
The main obstacle could be the weight. The weigh-ins were always stressful for Figueiredo as he often looked depleted on the scales when trying to make 125 lbs. However, he is correct when he says he only missed weight once (first Joseph Benavidez fight). After what was initially said to be a full time move to 135 lbs, the promotion might be hesitant to trust him to make championship weight again. Additionally, juggling weight classes may not be advisable for Figueiredo who will turn 37 next week.
If he can prove to the UFC that the weight can be made, we could see a rematch between ‘The Cannibal’ and ‘Deus da Guerra’.
