Missing weight is kind of like getting popped for PEDs — they never let you forget it.
Deiveson Figueiredo blew up the scale ahead of his Joseph Benavidez title fight at UFC Norfolk back in Feb. 2020, leaving him ineligible to win the 125-pound strap. The Brazilian was able to get back on track in the fights that followed, but that high-profile hiccup is still lingering somewhere in the back of Brandon Moreno’s mind.
Especially when Figueiredo is clomping around looking “huge.”
“I think his weight is always a question,” Moreno told reporters at the UFC 283 media day (via MMA Junkie). “But I stopped to take care about it because at least against me, he always made weight before. So I don’t know. I’m just trying not to think about it. When I fought against Kai Kara-France, he looked huge. He was huge. But last November when I came here with (Figueiredo), he looked better. I don’t know. I’m not putting too much attention on that.”
Both fighters will tip the scale in less than 48 hours.
Figueiredo, the reigning flyweight champion and Moreno, the current interim titleholder, will compete for the fourth (and hopefully final) time in the UFC 283 pay-per-view (PPV) co-main event, locked and loaded for this Sat. night (Jan. 21, 2023) at Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
For the rest of the UFC 283 fight card and PPV lineup click here.