Flyweight contender Deiveson Figueiredo tipped the scales at 127.5 pounds for his scheduled title fight against Joseph Benavidez at UFC Norfolk. Given the weight miss, the Brazilian immediately became ineligible to become champion, should he end up victorious.
Figueiredo did pick up a win via second-round TKO, but the title remains vacant. During the post-fight scrum, he along with his manager and translator Wallid Ismail revealed a stomach cramp that happened on fight week.
“You know what happened? I was cutting weight really smoothly, everything was fine,” Figueiredo said through Ismail. “But in the day of the weigh in, I felt a bad cramp in my stomach. My team called my doctor, my nutritionist, and she told my team, ‘Hey, if you really feel that, it’s better to stop.’”
According to Ismail, Figueiredo was a barely a pound away from making weight when the cramps started to act up.
“Because he was like 400 grams (over) when he felt that, and he needed to rehydrate (little by little). He was almost on the weight,” Ismail explained. “This is the first time this happened, people cannot forget that. The first time in his whole career that he (didn’t make weight).”
When asked if they intended to do anything different to prevent such an incident from happening in the future, Ismail says they wouldn’t change a thing.
“We’re not gonna do anything different. Just like what he talked about yesterday, he’s gonna bring in a nutritionist the next time. But besides that, nothing,” he said.
“You guys remember, (this happened to) many great fighters before. Khabib one time didn’t make weight. Now (Yoel) Romero is going to fight for the title. How many times did he fail to make weight?”
Figueiredo is now on a three-fight win streak with a record of 18-1 (15 wins by stoppage).
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