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Dana White announced a pair of flyweight title fights for UFC 255.
According to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto UFC President Dana White has announced there will be two title fights at UFC 255 on November 21st. Both of those fights will be for UFC flyweight championships.
Breaking: It will be flyweight title night at UFC 255 on Nov. 21, per Dana White (@danawhite).
Deiveson Figuiredo (@Daico_Deiveson) vs. Cody Garbrandt (@Cody_Nolove) and Valentina Shevchenko (@BulletValentina) vs. Jennifer Maia (@jennimaiaufc). More soon on @ESPN.
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) August 7, 2020
The men’s flyweight title will be contested by champion Deiveson Figueiredo and challenger Cody Garbrandt. The women’s title fight will feature champion Valentina Shevchenko taking on Jennifer Maia.
For Figueiredo this will be his first title defense since claiming the vacant belt at UFC Fight Island 2 with a submission win over Jospeh Benavidez. ‘Daico’ earned that shot off of a three fight win streak over Alexandre Pantoja, Tim Elliott and Benavidez (in a fight he could have claimed the title, had he come in on weight).
For Garbrandt, this will be his flyweight debut. The former UFC bantamweight champion is coming off a Fight Island KO win over Raphael Assuncao in June. That was the American’s first win after back-to-back losses to TJ. Dillashaw and a loss to Pedro Munhoz (all by KO/TKO).
Top bantamweight contender Marlon Moraes had stated he had been offered a fight with Garbrandt in October. However, the former champion had been making the media rounds stating how confident he was in his ability to drop down to 125 lbs.
Despite Garbrandt’s bullishness, the champion didn’t seem enthused for the match-up, stating he thought Garbrandt had to prove he could make the weight before being given a title shot.
The other flyweight title will see dominant champion Valentina Shevchenko putting her title on the line for the third time. She has successfully defended her belt versus Kaitlyn Chookagian, Liz Carmouche and Jessica Eye. She won the vacant belt in 2018 after beating former UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
Maia is a former Invicta FC bantamweight champion. She impressed last weekend by scoring a first round arm bar submission over previously considered number one contender Joanne Calderwood. That win for Maia came off the back of a loss to Kaitlyn Chookagian. Maia’s other UFC wins are against Roxanne Modafferi and Alexis Davis. She joined the UFC from Invicta in 2018 and dropped a decision to Liz Carmouche in her promotional debut.
UFC 255 is scheduled to take place on November 21st. The location is TBD. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic still causing chaos for world health and sporting events, it is likely this event will take place at either the UFC APEX facility in Las Vegas or ‘Fight Island’ (aka Yas Island) in Abu Dhabi. Either way it is likely that the event will take place with no fans in attendance.