Fightful Fix is your one-stop-shop for today's biggest combat sports stories, including the UFC 256 scorecards for Deiveson Figueiredo vs Brandon Moreno — conveniently compiled in one place. Take a look below.
Charles Oliveira calls out the winner of McGregor vs Poirier for the vacant title
After putting on the best performance of his career, Charles Oliveira has his ambitions set on UFC gold for 2021.
In the post-fight press conference after UFC 255, Oliveira was asked to give his thoughts on the status of the UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“Khabib swore on his father’s grave that he wasn’t going to come back,” Oliveira said (h/t MMA Fighting). “When a man does that, I don’t think he’s going to come back. [Justin] Gaethje can go fight whoever. But I want the winner of Conor [McGregor] and [Dustin] Poirier."
“I have eight wins in a row," he continued. "Seven of those, I finished the fight. I don’t let it go to the judges’ hands. I finish fights. I’m in the position to be fighting for the belt.”
Oliveira's eyes are now turned to the main event of UFC 257 between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier. Oliveira commented that regardless of the outcome, he wants to fight the winner.
“I don’t really think there is a preference,” Oliveira said. “I want to fight for the belt. That’s been my dream and my team’s dream. Obviously fighting Conor involves a lot of other things. It’s a lot of money and a lot of other things that maybe a fight with Dustin wouldn’t involve but we really want to win the belt. It really doesn’t make a difference.”
Despite engaging in 15 minutes of combat, Oliveira claims he is uninjured, and willing to serve as a replacement fighter should anything happen to one of Poirier or McGregor for next month's main event.
“I just have a cut over my eye,” Oliveira explained. “So next week I’ll be fine. I haven’t lost a fight since Paul Felder and I was in the gym a week after that. So, Dana [White] just call my manager if you want me to fill in.”
Dana White questions Tony Ferguson's future after UFC 256 loss
After Tony Ferguson was dominated for three rounds by Charles Oliveira in the UFC 256 co-main event, UFC president Dana White was asked by reporters how he felt about the performance of "El Cucuy" at the post-fight press conference.
“I thought we were going to see the old Tony,” White told reporters (h/t MMA Junkie). “I thought that the last fight he was affected by weight cutting and we were going to see (the old Tony). 10 out of 10 people tap to that armbar (against Oliveira). The fact he even made it through the armbar is unbelievable and just a testament to how tough and durable and crazy Tony Ferguson is.”
White was asked if this is merely a bump in the road or a more worrying slide.
“Of course that’s possible (he’s past his prime), but Tony needs to go home and spend the holidays with his family and take some time off and think about what he wants to do next year and we’ll see what’s next for him,” White said. “But yes, every time you fight in this business, that’s always possible.”
Deiveson Figueiredo was hospitalized the night before UFC 256
Deiveson Figueiredo had to compete against a stomach illness as well as Brandon Moreno this weekend. Figueiredo revealed in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan that he had been hospitalized until 2 AM the morning of the fight with a stomach bug.
“I had something happen to me yesterday. I had an infection in my stomach. I was in the hospital until 2 a.m.,” he said (h/t Bloody Elbow). “And I didn’t know how I was gonna be able to perform, but hopefully, I did a good job.
“I came in here and I put my blood, sweat, and tears into this, and I have to thank my team and everyone that helped me to put on this performance tonight.”
UFC president Dana White also stated that Figueiredo was also transported back to the hospital after the fight. Taking this into consideration, this makes the epic brawl that Figueiredo engaged in with Brandon Moreno last night all the more impressive.
Figueiredo vs Moreno rematch "absolutely positively" next
To the surprise of absolutely nobody, UFC president Dana White envisions running back the main event of UFC 256. When the scorecards came back a draw, after the epic encounter between Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno there was little doubt that a rematch was certainly in the books for 2021. At the post-fight press conference, White confirmed as much but did say that they'll likely have more than 3 weeks to prepare next time around.
“We’ve got to give these guys some time off – but you absolutely, positively do that rematch,” White commented after UFC 256 (h/t MMA Junkie). “That’s another fun fight for us all to look forward to in 2021.”
When asked whether he felt Saturday's main event was the fight of the year for 2020, White was non-committal and gave credit to Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Weili Zhang's war from all the way back in March.
“Joanna and Weili was really good, too. It was just so long ago people need to remember how really damn good that fight was.”
Judge scores round 5 for 10-9 for Moreno
Any time there is a draw in a title fight, there will be controversy around the scoring. In the case of UFC 256, that debate is centered around Junichiro Kamijo's scoring of the fifth round.
#UFC256 Official Scorecard: Deiveson Figueiredo vs Brandon Moreno
— UFC News (@UFCNews) December 13, 2020
All Scorecards: https://t.co/KDmku3KJi2 pic.twitter.com/2JHaQbWehS
The consensus in the MMA space seems to be that Deiveson Figueiredo won the fifth round fairly decisively, and had Kamijo given that round to the champ he would've won the fight. As tabulated by MMADecisions, 13 members of the media scored the fight 48-46 for Figueiredo, and 14 media members scored the fight a 47-47 draw.
Dana White says Junior dos Santos should consider his future
At Saturday's post-fight press conference, Dana White commented on the future of former heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos, after his 4th consecutive knockout loss.
With White promising over 60 cuts in the coming months, there have to be serious questions as to whether "JDS" will be joining the likes of Anderson Silva, and Yoel Romero on the cutting room floor.
“That’s every weekend. We’ll be talking about this next weekend, too, after the fights,” he told reporters, including MMA Junkie, backstage at the UFC Apex. “It’s part of the sport. Between last year and next year, you’re going to see a lot of the old big names moving on and retiring.”
When asked if Dos Santos should consider his future “in fighting, in general,” White stated briefly, “I do.”
Kevin Holland calls out Khamzat Chimaev for next week
Coming off an electric stoppage of Jacare Souza, Kevin Holland has big ideas for next weekend's fight card. Holland's bold idea was to call out red hot welterweight contender Khamzat Chimaev for a fight if he was willing to come up and meet him at middleweight.
Shots have been fired --@Trailblaze2top called out @KChimaev for #UFCVegas17 on Dec. 19. pic.twitter.com/92B9Lf4spJ
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) December 13, 2020
“I know my son doesn’t want me to say this right now, but I know Chimaev was supposed to fight on December 19. He fights at ’85 and ’70. Come back up to ’85,” Holland said (h/t Bloody Elbow).“That’s what he does, right? I think I do it better. Who’s fought the most this year?”
Holland also cautioned Chimaev, who moves between welterweight and middleweight.
“I think he should just stay ’70. I think he can be a champ at 170. But if he comes up here at ’85, I’mma bang that boy up.”
Chimaev had initially been scheduled to meet Leon Edwards in the main event of next Saturday's UFC Vegas 17 card before complications with the novel coronavirus caused it to be scrapped.
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