Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Not all that long ago, it was a pretty big fight.
Petr Yan and Deiveson Figueiredo were champions and pound-for-pound fixtures bridging 2020 into 2021 – having won their titles at bantamweight and flyweight just seven days apart during the UFC’s COVID-addled run on “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi.
They’re sharing turf at 135 pounds these days, though, which means their Fight Night matchup at Galaxy Arena in China’s seaside Macau region is especially important as the veterans, now 31 and 36, respectively, aim to stay within striking range of another shot.
Yan is ranked third at bantamweight though he’s won just twice in six fights since ascending to a vacated throne with a TKO defeat of Jose Aldo at UFC 251. He lost the belt via DQ to Aljamain Sterling in his first defense in March 2021, then dropped a split decision to Sterling in a rematch the following spring.
He’s lost on points to both Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili since, too, but most recently appeared at UFC 299 for a three-round win over Song Yadong.
Figueiredo’s reign at flyweight began on a Fight Night card a week after Yan’s rise, when he choked out Joseph Benavidez in one round. Two successful defenses followed before he was submitted by Brandon Moreno at UFC 263, and he re-won and re-lost the belt against Moreno in the final two bouts of what became a four-part series through January 2023.
The Brazilian subsequently climbed to bantamweight and has won three straight in his new surroundings, sandwiching a second-round choke-out of Cody Garbrandt between unanimous decisions over Rob Font and Marlon Vera.
The Vera win, also in Abu Dhabi, came on a Fight Night show in August and moved him to fifth at 135 behind champion Dvalishvili and contenders O’Malley, Umar Nurmagomedov, Yan and Cory Sandhagen.
It’s an early-morning rise for the B/R combat team, who’ll be in position at 3 a.m. ET (4 p.m. in Macau) to take in all the action from the 13-bout card and produce a real-time definitive list of the show’s winners and losers. Take a look at what we come up with and drop a thought in the app comments section.
