Deiveson Figueiredo Wants Flyweight Return Against Joshua Van
Deiveson Figueiredo said he is ready to cut back to 125 pounds and chase UFC flyweight champion Joshua Van, even as he prepares for a bantamweight co-main event this weekend.
The former two-time flyweight champion made the request at the UFC 332 press conference in Salt Lake City. He meets Payton Talbott on Saturday at the Delta Center, then immediately pointed at Van if the promotion will book the drop.
A reporter asked whether Figueiredo still looks at his old division and wonders about a fight with Van. Figueiredo did not treat it as nostalgia.
“I’ve been asking the UFC and telling them I will make that weight very easy,” he said. “I’ve been asking them to say, just make that fight, I want that opportunity, and let’s see if his boxing is as good as mine.”
That is a change in tone. Figueiredo had previously said his flyweight days were finished because of the cut. On fight week he told the room the number is no longer a problem.
The follow-up was specific. Win or lose Saturday, would he still go back to 125 for Van?
“Two hundred percent,” Figueiredo said. “If the UFC gives me an opportunity, I go out there and knock him out.”
Van is coming off a second title defense. He beat Alexandre Pantoja by unanimous decision at UFC 331 on September 19 in Los Angeles and now sits at 18-2. The first meeting ended in 26 seconds when Pantoja dislocated an elbow. The rematch went the full 25 minutes and left Van as the clearest man at the top of the division.
Figueiredo watched that fight as a striker-grappler, not as a fan of Van’s boxing showcase.
“Everybody wants to exchange with him, and he’s a striker, and I’m striker and a grappler,” he said. “If he wants to strike with me, in front of me, the effect won’t be the same, and he will not want to exchange with me.”
He was harder on Pantoja’s plan than on Van’s hand speed.
“Pantoja is an amazing fighter, but I think that the game plan was wrong, because he was just trying to push the striking in this fight,” Figueiredo said. “Why not use more grappling in this fight with the excellent jiu-jitsu he does?”
That is the case he is selling to the matchmakers. Van has made people stand with him. Figueiredo says he can box and wrestle, and that the champion will not like the trade once the first clean shot lands.
The timing is awkward for a title call. Figueiredo is 25-7-1 and coming off losses to Umar Nurmagomedov and Song Yadong. He is ranked in the bantamweight top 10 and is a sizable underdog against Talbott, who is 11-1. A flyweight title shot is not on the Saturday card.
It is also not the only name in the 125-pound line. Manel Kape has been widely discussed as the next man after Van’s win over Pantoja. Figueiredo did not wait for that queue. He asked for the fight in public and said the cut is already solved.
Saturday still comes first. Figueiredo has to get through Talbott at 135 before any return to flyweight is more than a press-conference request.
If he wins, the ask gets louder. If he loses, he already said the answer does not change. He wants Van at 125, he wants to test the champion’s boxing, and he wants the UFC to make the fight.
