Deiveson Figueiredo vs Brandon Moreno Preview & Prediction Updated for December 2024

Updated: 12th December 2024

Deiveson Figueiredo vs Brandon Moreno Preview + Prediction

Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Brandon Moreno UK Odds

Bet365 odds quoted are subject to change and were correct as of 12/12/2020.

Figueiredo odds	3/10 [BET NOW]
Moreno odds	5/2 [BET NOW]
Over/Under	2.5 (10/11/4/5) [BET NOW]
Venue	UFC APEX, Las Vegas
Time	Approx. 11:55 p.m. ET
Channel	ESPN PPV

The final pay-per-view event of the year in UFC 256 takes place Saturday night at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. Headlining the event is a flyweight title fight between current champion Deiveson Figueiredo (20-1) and Brandon Moreno (18-5-1) — both of whom will have the shortest layoff for a title fight in UFC history.

With that said, let’s preview what should be an exciting and highly-intriguing main event.

Deus Da Guerra

Figueiredo successfully defended his flyweight title for the first time following a quick first-round submission victory over Alex Perez in the UFC 255 headliner last month. Having taken minimal damage for as long as the fight 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 way of finish — the most in UFC flyweight history. He is also currently on a five-fight winning streak and will look to make it two title defenses when he collides with Moreno.

The Assassin Baby

Moreno, meanwhile, will look to cap off his impressive run in his second stint in the UFC with championship gold. The Mexican, of course, was released by the promotion in 2018 after dropping two unanimous decisions to Sergio Pettis and Alexandre Pantoja. He would later become the LFA flyweight champion following a TKO win over Maikel Pérez before getting re-signed by the UFC last year.

Since then, “The Assassin Baby” has gone 3-0-1 with impressive victories over the likes of Kai Kara-France, Jussier Formiga and Brandon Royval. The most recent one against Royval — a first-round TKO finish — also took place at UFC 255 as Moreno would call for a title shot in his post-fight interview. He would get his wish soon after.

The matchup

The power of Figueiredo will naturally be key. After all, he boasts the most knockdowns in flyweight history with 1.34 per 15 mins. The champion will likely look to dictate the pace and walk Moreno down with the hope of landing an accurate yet deadly right hand to end the contest.

As we saw with Perez and many others, if your choice of poison is taking Figueiredo down, you’re also at risk of being exposed to his excellent submission 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 range well and excelling at distance strikes, Moreno is also known to take his opponents down as he currently boasts the third most takedowns landed amongst active flyweights with 15.

But unlike other fighters, Moreno drives his head up while he’s attempting his takedowns making it difficult to wrap his neck for a guillotine. After all, he’s never been submitted or even knocked out for that matter. In addition, he prefers to take the back of his opponents so he will always circle to the right or left looking to sink in his preferred rear naked choke submission with five of his 10 submission victories coming through that technique.

If Moreno can take Figuiredo’s back and avoid the submission threat in general, there is certainly a path to victory in addition to potentially gassing the champion out. Moreno showed great scrambling ability against Askar Askarov in their entertaining draw last year and the potential scrambles against Figueiredo are guaranteed to be entertaining but also taxing for the latter who has shown in the past to breathe heavy early on.

Figueiredo has never fought beyond the third round in his professional career either so the longer the fight plays out, the more chances Moreno has of coming out on top even with Figueiredo’s power.

Despite what the odds say, this is a much closer fight than many observers believe.

Deiveson Figueiredo vs Brandon Moreno Prediction:

Compared to previous years, the flyweight division is on fire with great matchups all around. The UFC 255 headliner last month was an exciting bout, but only lasted just under two minutes. Hopefully, Figueiredo vs. Moreno lasts much longer as it could be a genuine fight of the year candidate.

Like against Perez, Figueiredo has plenty of ways to win the fight 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 deadly submission threat.

Moreno, meanwhile, likely has the speed advantage and will be looking to manage range as well as counter with his much-improved standup game. His main hope is to seemingly avoid Figueiredo’s big shots and look to tire him out by mixing things up with takedowns and keeping the contest going for as long as possible.

The only problem is being able to do that for 25 minutes which no fighter has done thus far.

That said, Moreno has never been finished during his professional career either so it will be a huge statement if Figueiredo is the first to stop him as well as a testament to the power he possesses if it’s a knockout win.

Bet365 odds quoted are subject to change and were correct as of 12/12/2020.

Where to Bet on Deiveson Figueiredo vs Brandon Moreno?

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