One UFC titleholder has picked up a late reward following the most impressive showing of his career.
There’s no shortage of proven talent on Saturday’s UFC 324 card, with plenty of fighters who have either worn gold or competed for it in the past.
One of them is Deiveson Figueiredo, who joins fellow ex-champs Sean O’Malley and Rose Namajunas as part of the build-up to Justin Gaethje vs Paddy Pimblett, which tops the bill for this event.
Now competing at bantamweight, ‘Deus da Guerra’ built his legacy at flyweight, where he had two stints as champion and established himself as one of the division’s best ever.
His time at flyweight produced plenty of standout moments, but few match what he achieved at UFC 255 — even if it took a bit longer than expected for the recognition to follow.
Deiveson Figueiredo’s first-round submission earns recognition from Dana White after being overlooked
After securing back-to-back wins over Joseph Benavidez in 2020, the second of which officially crowned him flyweight champion following a weight miss that had kept the belt vacant earlier in the year, Figueiredo made his return for his first title defence.
‘Deus da Guerra’ had already delivered two decisive performances to retire Benavidez, and he carried that momentum into his bout with Alex Perez.
Figueiredo submitted Perez in less than two minutes at UFC 255, finishing with a guillotine choke to firmly close the door on Perez’s title ambitions.
Praise for Figueiredo’s performance quickly gave way to confusion and frustration directed at Dana White after an unexpected bonus snub.
The backlash was significant enough that the UFC president addressed it at the post-fight press conference for the next event, admitting he’d corrected the oversight.
“I don’t know how we f—— that up. We were wrong,” White told reporters when discussing why Figueiredo hadn’t initially received a $50k bonus. “You guys didn’t say anything to me, either.
“Sometimes, when you guys disagree, you’ll say, ‘Don’t you think this guy won?’ But I don’t know how the hell we overlooked that.”
“Mick (Maynard) couldn’t get to the afterparty fast enough, and I don’t know what was going on with me,” he said. “But we f—— up and when I make mistakes I make it right. So we did.”
UFC doubles event bonuses to $400k, including $100k for Fight and Performance of the Night
Bonuses have been a hot topic leading up to UFC 324, especially after White promised bigger payouts following the multi-billion-dollar deal with Paramount.
Specific figures weren’t made public early in fight week, something that became clear when headliner Gaethje pointed out his 14 career bonuses hadn’t even reached a million dollars total.
White didn’t have an immediate answer when asked about the promised increase at Thursday’s press conference. But just hours before Saturday’s card, he finally laid out the new numbers.
The UFC will now hand out four $100k bonuses at each event – two for Performance of the Night and two for Fight of the Night. That bumps up the total bonus pool from $200k to $400k per card.
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