Deiveson Figueiredo shoots down weight concerns, expects to earn a title shot with a win at UFC Des Moines

Deiveson Figueiredo isn’t worried about his weight ahead of his UFC Des Moines main event against Cory Sandhagen.

Figueiredo enters the bout as a sizeable +350 underdog on FanDuel, as he’s coming off a decision loss to Petr Yan back in November. Since the fight, photos went viral of Figueiredo looking out of shape, which he says were months ago, as he says there are no issues with his weight ahead of the bout.

“The pictures that you see there are from a time when I was coming off injury. So I had injuries in the groin area muscles, and I was taking cortisone, and I was very overweight,” Figueiredo said at UFC Des Moines media day. “But people don’t need to worry. I’m going to make weight. I’ve always been very professional in my life, and I’m not going to stop being professional now.”

Figueiredo is a former flyweight, so missing weight at bantamweight would be a bit of a surprise. He also has only missed weight once in his career, and as the Brazilian says, he is a professional.

Deiveson Figueiredo hopes to earn a title shot with a win at UFC Des Moines

Once Deiveson Figueiredo makes weight on Friday morning, the attention turns to his fight against Cory Sandhagen on Saturday.

Figueiredo knows it won’t be easy to beat Sandhagen, but he’s confident in his skills that he will be able to get his hand raised. If he does pull off the upset, the Brazilian believes he could get a title shot.

“I’m a guy that’s now 37, so I can’t miss out on this opportunity,” Figueiredo said. “Beating Cory on Saturday, I’ll get on the microphone and ask UFC to get me that title shot.”

Figueiredo getting a title shot with a win would be a bit of a surprise, as Petr Yan, who beat him last time out, would be ahead of him. But the Brazilian believes he can get a title shot with an impressive win over Sandhagen on Saturday night.

Figueiredo enters UFC Des Moines with a record of 24-4-1 and coming off a loss to Yan. Before that, he won three straight fights, which were his first three fights at bantamweight.