Following his dominant second-round submission win over Cody Garbrandt at UFC 300 last weekend, Deiveson Figueiredo is already eyeing up his next possible opponent.
Since making his move up to bantamweight late last year, Deiveson Figueiredo has scored two impressive wins over Rob Font, and more recently, Cody Garbrandt.
Following the fight, Cody Garbrandt revealed a bout of vertigo assisted in the loss and stated that he was in the hospital till 4 am trying to recover from it.
With that, the former flyweight champion now sits at rank six in the division as he has his eyes set on his ‘dream fight’ next.
Deiveson Figueiredo close to a bantamweight title shot
The bantamweight title picture is starting to become more clear, with champion, Sean O’Malley, likely to defend his title against Merab Dvalishvili next.
Not wanting to wait around for his deserved title shot, number two-ranked, Cory Sandhagen is pushing for a fight with the undefeated ninth-ranked, Umar Nurmagomedov. The winner of that potential bout will likely earn themselves the next title shot after ‘The Machine’.
With that, Deiveson Figueiredo likely needs one more win before he lands himself in the title picture, because of his credentials at flyweight. The Brazilian doesn’t need to go on a long undefeated run at 135lbs, and he has outlined who he wants next.
Deiveson Figueiredo wants ‘dream fight’ against Dominick Cruz
Despite being close to the top of the division, ‘Deus Da Guerra’ is eyeing a fight with number 11 ranked, Dominick Cruz.
‘The Dominator’ hasn’t fought since August 2022 when he was knocked out by Marlon Vera. Despite having not fought in almost two years, Cruz has seemingly continued training hard.
“People are pushing some names, but what I really want is to fulfill a dream of mine, which is to fight Dominick Cruz.” Figueiredo told Canal Encarda.
“I hope this fight happens. For me, it’s a dream to fight a guy with a size like his, a name like the one he has within the organization.” Figgy added.
The 36-year-old has UFC 303, the International Fight Week event, highlighted as the one he’d like to fight Cruz on. Conor McGregor takes on Michael Chandler in the main event of that card, with Jamahal Hill also recently booked for the event.
As well as that, Figueiredo believes a win over the former bantamweight champion would be enough to earn him a title shot, despite Cruz being five ranks lower than him.
“For me, it would be amazing to fight at the McGregor event in June. That depends on (Dominick Cruz). If he signs the contract, I’m ready. I want to fight him.
“I keep talking about Cruz because of his name, because of the history he has within the organization. I think he is a guy who can take me to a title shot.” Figueiredo finished.