It was revealed on Friday that Deiveson Figueiredo has missed weight for his vacant Flyweight title fight against Joseph Benavidez at UFC Norfolk.
Joseph Benavidez will go against Figueiredo this Saturday night in the main event of UFC Norfolk. Since Figueiredo missed weight, only Benavidez is eligible to win the vacant UFC flyweight belt. Figueiredo stepped onto the scales at 127.5lbs, coming in 2.5lbs over the weight limit for his vacant Flyweight title fight against Benavidez.
His team issued a statement saying that UFC doctors advised Figueiredo to not continue cutting weight during the extra hour he was granted to cut the 2.5lbs after his initial miss. While he will still go against Benavidez, he will not be eligible to win the belt against. It’s only Benavidez who will be allowed to become the new UFC Flyweight champion if he beats Figueiredo at UFC Norfolk.
Benavidez spoke to ESPN, saying that Figueiredo missing weight just shows that the Brazilian lacks mental discipline to become a champion.
“It’s more of a mental discipline thing, making weight, you know? It just shows me you didn’t come to do this, you didn’t come to win the belt and it adds that conviction and what I already know and believe anyway, it’s like, you weren’t getting it anyway, and now you literally can’t. That’s all on him, that part of it, you know? What I was going to do was going to happen regardless, like I said, if he made or missed,” said Benavidez.
While Benavidez is obviously disappointed that his opponent didn’t make weight, he is still looking at it from a positive perspective. In Benavidez’s mind, the tough weight cut is a positive, because Figueiredo is drained as much as he is.
“I assume he suffered as much — my weight cut was clean — so he suffered more than me at the end of the day,” Benavidez said.
This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 29th February, 2020.
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