Francisco Figueiredo, the younger brother of UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo, will be joining him in the promotion. His manager, Wallid Ismail, announced the signing on social media.
Ismail spoke to Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting and said that Figueiredo will likely make his promotional debut sometime in 2021, but the details of his first appearance inside the Octagon still need to be worked out.
The signing of Figueiredo should come as no surprise considering the eldest Figueiredo has lobbied for his brother to get signed by the UFC in recent weeks. Just one month ago, Deiveson took to social media to post a photo of himself and his brother with a caption saying, ‘I want my brother [in] UFC’ and tagged the most important names in the UFC brass. Shortly after, he got his wish granted and Francisco is now in the UFC.
Figueiredo is a solid fighter competing at 135 pounds, boasting an overall record of 11-3-1 since he began his mixed martial arts career in 2009. Most of his career wins have come by way of submission, but Figueiredo has been known to finish with strikes here and there.
Although he has competed in several promotions, Figueiredo has made a name for himself under the Jungle Fight banner in Brazil. His most recent fight was in September 2019 at Jungle Fight 95, where he fought to a draw against Eduardo de Souza Silva. Figueiredo was supposed to make his return in March 2020 at Jungle Fight 103 against Klinger Pinheiro, the current bantamweight champion, but the event was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Figueiredo brothers now join a special club of siblings competing in the UFC at the same time. Other siblings with this distinction are Nick and Nate Diaz, Valentina and Antonina Shevchenko and Gilbert and Herbert Burns.
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