After “sweeping” the flyweight category, Alexandre Pantoja is looking for a new opponent to defend his fourth belt in UFC —and the former champion Deiveson Figueiredo offered for a rematch.
The current champion of the division has already faced and defeated the main names in the rankingcomo Brandon Moreno, Brandon Royval, Alex Perez and novato Kai Asakura.
After defending the title for the third time, he challenged Demetrious Johnson to come out of retirement to see who is the best between the two, but the former fighter didn’t accept it and declared he was no longer number one.
In the absence of interesting opponents for the Rio native, Deiveson, who was flyweight champion between 2020 and 2022, offered to have a rematch with the current title holder.
“If Pantoja is looking for an opponent, I’m the best option. I’m available, my friend,” he said, in an interview with the Laerte Viana na Área channel on YouTube.
Figueiredo became champion over Joseph Benavidez, beat Alex Perez and faced Moreno for the belt four times, with one win, one draw and two losses, before moving up to bantamweight, where he is fifth.
To face Pantoja, Deiveson would have to drop down a category and make a weight cut; that wouldn’t be a problem for him.
“In my UFC career, I only failed to make weight once. If I need to do that, I will go there and fulfill my commitment,” he promised.
Pantoja x Figueiredo in the UFC
The two Brazilians faced each other for the first time in 2019, just over six months before Figueiredo became flyweight champion and when Pantoja had not yet taken off.
The fight had three rounds and ended in victory for Deiveson, by unanimous decision of the judges; This was the Fluminense’s second defeat in the organization.
Now, the scenario is completely different. Alexandre is on a seven-fight win streak, with the last four fights being for the belt. Figueiredo, in turn, is coming off a defeat in the bantamweight division; his last victory at flyweight was in 2022, over Brandon Moreno.