Former UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo has revealed that he suffered a nasty cut in advance of last weekend’s UFC Des Moines main event against Cory Sandhagen.
Figueiredo (24-5-1 MMA, 13-5-1 UFC) believes the incident played a sizeable part in his defeat at the hands of “Sandman”.
“Three weeks before the fight I got a jaw displacement after getting hit by a straight punch in sparring,” Figueiredo explained during an interview this week with Sherdog. “Because of that, I had to stay away from striking sparring until last Tuesday. In one of my last grappling sparring (sessions), I got scratched on my leg and the cut got infected, so I had to take antibiotics. On the Monday of fight week, I woke up with a fever and asked my manager to cancel the fight. But (because) it was a main event, I reconsidered and decided to fight in respect with UFC and my fans, even not being in my best condition.”
Figueiredo also acknowledged his error in engaging with Sandhagen on the canvas and believes that had he kept the fight on the fight, he would have had a clearer path to victory.
“It was a wrong decision,” he admitted. “I felt Cory‘s power, and they were not hard punches. If I (had) followed the original strategy, the fight certainly could have gone differently.”
The Brazilian suffered a knee injury mid-transition when the pair were tied up in a position known as “50-50 guard”, but he doesn’t believe the injury is as serious as he first feared.
“The knee popped, and at the moment I thought it could be something serious,” he said. “It’s swollen, but I was able to walk during my long trip to Brazil. I’m going to make sure with the doctor this week, but I don’t think it will be something serious that requires surgery.”
The former flyweight titleholder aims to get back into the Octagon as soon as possible and even has an opponent in mind for his return.
“Yadong Song would make total sense,” he remarked. “He also lost to Petr Yan and Sandhagen. We are number five and six in the rankings. I have no doubt we can make a hell of a fight.”
