LAS VEGAS – Deiveson Figueiredo never has been such a big underdog in his UFC career.
Umar Nurmagomedov (19-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC) is a massive -1600 favorite to beat Figueiredo (25-5-1 MMA, 14-5-1 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 324 (Paramount+) featured prelim at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
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The former two-time UFC flyweight champion was a dominant force in his previous division where he held notable wins over Joseph Benavidez, Brandon Moreno and Alexandre Pantoja. His move up to bantamweight yielded early results, but the 38-year-old now has lost two of his past three.
Figueiredo is fueled to prove the oddsmakers wrong.
“I don’t see that as a disrespect,” Figueiredo told MMA Junkie and other reporters through an interpreter at Wednesday’s UFC 324 media day. “What I see is an incentive and an inspiration. It just makes me want to go there and just beat the house, break it down. I just want to tear up the sports book on that one. I just want to go out there and prove to people that, yeah, you made a bad mistake.”
Massive underdog or not, Figueiredo is confident he can hang with Nurmagomedov.
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“I’m very happy with the opportunity,” Figueiredo said. “To have a card like this, an event like this, a moment like this and actually have the guy who’s No. 1 in the rankings. So, to have that fight is going to also – he’s a great fighter, someone that likes to grapple. He wants to take me down. Yeah, go ahead. You know what? I come from grappling. That’s what I like to do.
“But I’m a true striker, and ever since I’ve moved up in divisions, I think I’ve improved a lot of things in my game and just to ensure the game plan is going right, and I can neutralize these guys. The game plan is for me not to allow him to stall and just press me against the fence. We want to make sure that we counter attack the attempt to be stalling the fight. We want to make it active.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC 324: Deiveson Figueiredo unfazed by lopsided odds
