Former flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo has had great success since moving up to the bantamweight division and he still has his eyes on champion, Sean O’Malley.
Since losing his 125lb title to Brandon Moreno in January last year, Deiveson Figueiredo made the decision to move up to the bantamweight division for a new challenge.
His 135lb debut came against Rob Font this past December, and ‘Deus Da Guerra’ showcased that he was likely going to be a problem atop of his new division.
Following that, he clashed with former champion, Cody Garbrandt, at UFC 300 picking up an impressive second round submission.
Deiveson Figueiredo compares Sean O’Malley to Muhammad Ali and himself to Mike Tyson
His next challenge comes by way of Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera, as the two are scheduled to fight at UFC Abu Dhabi this coming Saturday, and with a win, he may secure himself a title shot.
The Brazilian has campaigned for a fight against current bantamweight champion, Sean O’Malley, for a while now, even when he was king of the flyweight division.
Now, there is more chance than ever for the 36-year-old to get his wish at fighting ‘Suga’ and with that, ahead of his fight this weekend, he has made a strange comparison of O’Malley to Muhammad Ali.
“Sean O’Malley is like Muhammad Ali, he lands a lot but never knocks anyone out. I’m like Mike Tyson,” the former flyweight champion claimed at the UFC Abu Dhabi media day.
Figueiredo’s comparison comes as quite a surprise considering the 29-year-old champion has scored 11 knockouts during his 19 fights, and has accumulated quite the highlight reel.
Figgy’s main goal, though, is to become a two-weight world champion and currently, O’Malley stands in the way of that.
“My main objective right now is to become a double champ. I’m gonna become the champ in this division and I’m gonna knock (Vera) out on my way to the title.
“I think that’s what is gonna give me a title shot, and then I’ll become a double champ and just have to wait for the Hall of Fame induction at the end of my career,” he stated.
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Marlon Vera shrugs off the fact Figueiredo has been training with Khabib Nurmagomedov
Ahead of his third outing at bantamweight, Figueiredo sought out the assistance of former lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and has spent a little bit of time training with him and his team.
‘Chito’ isn’t concerned about the possible wrestling and grappling that may come his way, though, and has claimed that he will slice the Brazilian with elbows if he does decide to attempt to wrestle.
“F***, yeah, Khabib, that’s cool. He can try to hump my leg but I’m gonna slice him open with elbows. Even if he’d spent three months with Khabib or a year with Khabib, I don’t give a f***,” Vera said at the media day.
Commenting on the upcoming bantamweight title fight between O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306, Vera stated that he would be worried about Merab’s chin if he were the Georgian or his team.
“The thing with that (fight), I would be more worried about Merab’s chin because he’s been dropped by everybody and I mean if you get dropped by (Henry) Cejudo, good Lord, f***, that’s a f****** 4ft motherf***** right there so if (O’Malley) catches him early the fight can be over,” Vera predicted.
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