UFC 256: Dana White lauds ‘greatest fight in flyweight history’ as Deiveson Figueiredo, Brandon Moreno battle to draw
- Majority draw means Figueiredo keeps his belt but Moreno gives as good as he gets
- ‘I came in here and I put my blood sweat and tears into this,’ says Figueiredo, as rematch looms in 2021
UFC boss Dana White called it the greatest flyweight fight in his organisation‘s history – and who, on Earth, could argue with that?
Brazil’s Deiveson Figueiredo kept the flyweight belt on Saturday night, thanks to a majority draw with Brandon Moreno of Mexico in UFC 256’s main event, and the reality was that there really was nothing at all between these two warriors after five torrid rounds of relentless and thrilling action.
The UFC’s last pay-per-view of 2020 produced a fight of the year contender as the pair threw – and absorbed – a relentless stream of blows, scrapped away on the ground when it came to that and basically put it all on the line for every second of the fight’s 25 minutes. It was called 47-46 (Figueiredo), 47-47, 47-47.
“I came in here and I put my blood sweat and tears into this,” Figueiredo said post-fight, after revealing he’d been taken to hospital with a stomach problem in the lead-up to the fight.
The 32-year-old Figueiredo (20-1-1) had taken a one-point deduction for a low blow in the fourth, a point that might have secured him a decision in the end. But he was not going to cry, knowing full well that his 27-year-old opponent (18-5-2) had pushed him to the limit.