Moreno ‘Doesn’t Deserve Title Fight’

According to Deiveson Figueiredo, we won’t be seeing him in action any time soon.

Unbeknownst to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Flyweight titleholder, reports surfaced noting that a fourth bout with Brandon Moreno was being targeted for sometime in July.

However, speaking with MMA Fighting, Figueiredo shared that he’s currently dealing with some hand injuries and targets a return in October or November against Kai Kara-France.

“[The finger injury] is not an injury that gets better overnight,” Figueiredo said. “I had an MRI and asked to forward it to the UFC. I have another injury [on the left hand] that I can’t hit pads, and that’s been bothering me. I’m only able to train grappling in the gym, no punches.

“This fight against Brandon Moreno doesn’t interest me,” he continued. “He was racist with me, his followers constantly coming to my social media calling me monkey, Brandon Moreno’s coach posted a picture of me with a monkey face. This fight simply doesn’t interest me because of that. This guy doesn’t deserve a title fight for his racist attitude. The fight to make is me against Kai Kara-France. I want his head now.”

New Zealand’s Kara-France has been calling for his shot at gold since defeating Cody Garbrandt by first round knockout at UFC 269 in Dec. 2021. Continuing to impress, Kara-France handed the unbeaten Askar Askarov his first career loss this past weekend at UFC Columbus when picking up the unanimous decision nod.

“He knocked out Cody Garbrandt and has great striking, while the Russian only has that boring grappling game of his. That’s why I want to fight that guy, a guy that believes in his hands,” Figueiredo said. “I believe a lot in my hands, too. I believe a lot in my jiu-jitsu, my wrestling. I think this match-up against Kai Kara-France favors me.

“I have to be worried with his striking because it’s efficient,” he concluded. “He has a dangerous overhand. His style is similar to mine. I throw a lot of overhands, and one of us can land a powerful hand.”

While Figueiredo hasn’t finished a fight via strikes since Feb. 2020, he has full confidence that the stylistic clash between himself and Kara-France would result in his favor.

“[I will beat him] by knockout, no doubt about it,” Figueiredo said. “He will try to trade with me, my hand will touch and he will go down. If he goes down but not out, I’ll submit him. I think [this fight] will be very similar to the one with Moreno, the third one. He went down when my hand touched him. He was lucky he was saved by the bell. When I had the choke in, the round was over.”