Des Moines, IA — Ahead of the UFC Des Moines main event between bantamweights Deiveson Figueiredo and Cory Sandhagen, the normally soft-spoken Sandhagen has been a little more outspoken.
That has included cracks about Figueiredo’s height and wrestling ability, but the jabs outside the cage don’t seen to have impacted the Brazilian, a former UFC flyweight champion, all that much.
“I think that the joker spirit that lived within me back in the day, just do all this clown stuff, I think it left my body and went into his,” Figueiredo (24-4-1) told media outlets including Cageside Press during Wednesday’s media day. “So I’m just going to keep enjoying it, I’m just going to keep watching what he does, and let’s settle the situation. I’ll just keep watching all that nonsense and we’ll settle it all in the octagon on Saturday.”
Sandhagen has also been critical of Figuredo’s skill set in comparison to his own, which Figueiredo appears to believe boils down to his last performance. That was a decision loss to former UFC bantamweight champ Petr Yan last November.
“I learned a lot from my last fight. I’m an aggressive guy, but I wasn’t. Quickness and speed was lacking as well,” Figuredo stated, critiquing his own showing that night. “But I learned a lot from that fight, and let’s just say I’m not going to talk much about it, but I learned a lot and I’m not going to be the same guy that he saw in the last fight.”
What Figueiredo intends to show at UFC Des Moines is an upgraded skillset, with the Brazilian making an analogy to Apple’s development of the iPhone.
“I’m a guy that’s always just updating things. As the iPhone upgrades their operating system, I do mine as well. And I think I just upgraded my software, and you’re going to see a guy that’s much better than he was before.”
Later, Figueiredo told Cageside Press that he intended to deal with Sandhagen’s length “Mike Tyson style.” As he put it, “just start going at it, going inside, and just see what happens on Saturday.”
The former flyweight champ, who moved up to 135lbs after four fights with rival Brandon Moreno, also gave his prediction for the rematch between Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley.
“I see this going Merab’s way. I don’t think it’s a good match-up for Sean, even though Sean is very versatile, the way he moves,” suggested Figueiredo. “I think that Merab just breaks his game, and I do not see Sean getting over that.”
Watch Deiveson Figueiredo’s full UFC Des Moines media day appearance above.
