UFC Fight Night went down from Macao on Saturday morning with a bantamweight main event featuring former bantamweight champion Petr Yan taking on former flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo. After five action-filled rounds, Yan took a unanimous decision to put himself in position to once again challenge for the title.
Figueiredo wasted little time in getting his gameplan working, dragging the fight to the floor and taking Yan’s back. Yan was able to relax and avoid Figueiredo’s attempts to set up a rear-naked choke or armbar until he was able to reverse the position and end up inside Figueiredo’s guard. From there, Yan spent the remainder of the opening round dropping heavy ground and pound strikes.
Both men had moments landing good strikes throughout the second round before the next pivotal moment in the fight, when Yan dropped Figueiredo with a heavy uppercut in the third. Figueiredo was able to recover and get back to his feet but had now been put in bad positions both on the feet and on the ground, leaving him hinting for some way to change the tone of the fight.
Yan seemed to be fully in control of the fight with Figueiredo appearing increasingly frustrated only for Figueiredo to score a knockdown of his own in Round 4 after hurting Yan with a knee to the body. Like Figueiredo earlier, Yan was able to quickly recover but it was a moment that proved even when Yan appeared fully in control, the former flyweight champion was still dangerous.
The fifth round saw fantastic two-way action with huge strikes landing for both men en route to the final bell, cementing the fight as a late entry into the Fight of the Year conversation.
Despite the competitive nature of the fight, there was little doubt who would have their hand raised after the scorecards were read. All three judges turned in scorecards reading 50-45 all in favor of Yan.
“I felt that I led in the fight but anything can happen in the UFC,” Yan said after the fight in reference to some controversial scorecards in his past fights.
Yan turned his attention to newly-crowned bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili, who had called Figueiredo the No. 1 contender in the division prior to the fight. Yan called for a rematch with Dvalishvili, who holds a March 2023 decision win over Yan.
