UFC Rio has come and gone, and one former champion wants to get back in title contention.<\/p>\n
In the UFC Rio co-headliner, Deiveson Figueiredo collided with Montel Jackson inside Farmasi Arena this past Saturday. Figueiredo entered the fight on a two-fight skid and knew he needed a win to remain relevant in the bantamweight division. The bout went the distance and \u201cFiggy\u201d was awarded the split decision victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n Figueiredo appeared on the ESPN+ post-fight show, and he expressed his desire to compete in a potential No. 1 contender fight before 2025 comes to a close (via MMAJunkie<\/a>).<\/p>\n \u201c(I\u2019ll fight) whenever UFC wants me to fight,\u201d Figueiredo said. \u201cMaybe year-end. If the UFC wants it, maybe it can set me up nicely to dispute for the belt.\u201d<\/p>\n Figueiredo admitted that Jackson gave him a tougher time with his grappling defense than he was anticipating.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was kind of surprising how well he was able to defend my takedown attempts and everything,\u201d Figueiredo said. \u201cBut we trained really hard. \u2026 He actually landed and connected a punch at the end of the first round, but nothing apart from that. I was able to put on a good fight.\u201d<\/p>\n A former two-time UFC Flyweight Champion, Figueiredo found early success when he moved up to the 135-pound division. He was riding a three-fight winning streak at bantamweight with wins over Rob Font, Cody Garbrandt, and Marlon \u201cChito\u201d Vera. Losses to Petr Yan and Cory Sandhagen set Figueiredo back a bit, but he\u2019s hoping the win over Jackson puts him one step closer to another title fight.<\/p>\n