Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Brandon Moreno – Figueiredo to retain Title by Decision

Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Brandon Moreno Preview + Prediction

Figueiredo vs. Moreno Odds

Figueiredo odds	-385 [BET NOW]
Moreno odds	+260 [BET NOW]
Over/Under	2.5 (+106/-136) [BET NOW]
Venue	UFC APEX, Las Vegas
Time	Approx. 11:55 p.m. ET
Channel	ESPN PPV

The last pay-per-view event of the year in UFC 256 occurs Saturday night at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. Headlining the event is a flyweight title battle in between current champ Deiveson Figueiredo (20-1) and Brandon Moreno (18-5-1)– both of whom will have the fastest layoff for a title battle in UFC history.

With that stated, let's sneak peek what must be an exciting and highly-intriguing centerpiece.

Deus Da Guerra

Figueiredo effectively defended his flyweight title for the first time following a fast first-round submission success over Alex Perez in the UFC 255 headliner last month. Having taken minimal damage for as long as the battle went on, “Deus da Guerra” took advantage of a mistake from Perez on the ground to sink in the guillotine choke and earn the victory.

In the process, the Brazilian went 9-1 in the UFC with seven of those wins coming by method of surface– the most in UFC flyweight history. He is likewise presently on a five-fight winning streak and will want to make it two title defenses when he collides with Moreno.

The Assassin Baby

Moreno, meanwhile, will want to top off his outstanding run in his second stint in the UFC with championship gold. The Mexican, obviously, was released by the promo in 2018 after dropping two unanimous decisions to Sergio Pettis and Alexandre Pantoja. He would later on become the LFA flyweight champ following a TKO win over Maikel Pérez before getting re-signed by the UFC in 2015.

Ever since, “The Assassin Baby” has gone 3-0-1 with excellent success over the similarity Kai Kara-France, Jussier Formiga and Brandon Royval. The most current one against Royval– a first-round TKO surface– also happened at UFC 255 as Moreno would require a title shot in his post-fight interview. He would get his wish soon after.

The match

The power of Figueiredo will naturally be key. He boasts the most knockdowns in flyweight history with 1.34 per 15 minutes. The champ will likely aim to dictate the rate and walk Moreno down with the hope of landing a precise yet fatal right-hand man to end the contest.

As we saw with Perez and lots of others, if your option of toxin is taking Figueiredo down, you're also at danger of being exposed to his exceptional submission video game– in particular, the guillotine.

That is what Moreno will likely have to do. While he's exhibited improved striking in recent fights by managing variety well and standing out at distance strikes, Moreno is likewise understood to take his opponents down as he currently boasts the 3rd most takedowns landed among active flyweights with 15.

However unlike other fighters, Moreno drives his head up while he's attempting his takedowns making it challenging to wrap his neck for a guillotine. After all, he's never ever been submitted or even knocked out for that matter. In addition, he chooses to take the back of his challengers so he will always circle to the right or left seeking to sink in his preferred rear naked choke submission with 5 of his 10 submission triumphes coming through that method.

If Moreno can take Figuiredo's back and avoid the submission threat in basic, there is definitely a course to success in addition to possibly gassing the champ out. Moreno revealed fantastic scrambling ability against Askar Askarov in their amusing draw in 2015 and the prospective scrambles versus Figueiredo are guaranteed to be entertaining however also taxing for the latter who has actually shown in the past to breathe heavy early on.

Figueiredo has never ever combated beyond the third round in his expert career either so the longer the fight plays out, the more possibilities Moreno has of coming out on top even with Figueiredo's power.

Regardless of what the odds state, this is a much closer fight than lots of observers think.

Forecast:

Compared to previous years, the flyweight division is on fire with terrific matchups all around. The UFC 255 headliner last month was an exciting bout, but only lasted simply under 2 minutes. Ideally, Figueiredo vs. Moreno lasts a lot longer as it could be an authentic battle of the year candidate.

Like versus Perez, Figueiredo has a lot of ways to win the battle against Moreno. There's his fight-ending power in his right hand while we've all seen that he's no slouch on the ground with his lethal submission threat.

Moreno, meanwhile, most likely has the speed benefit and will be wanting to handle range as well as counter with his much-improved standup game. His primary hope is to seemingly avoid Figueiredo's big shots and want to tire him out by mixing things up with takedowns and keeping the contest choosing as long as possible. The only problem is being able to do that for 25 minutes which no fighter has done thus far.

That stated, Moreno has actually never been finished during his professional profession either so it will be a substantial declaration if Figueiredo is the first to stop him as well as a testimony to the power he possesses if it's a knockout win.

Nevertheless, we see this being a decision win for the champ who must retain his title on Saturday night.

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