A victorious Figueiredo has an eye towards the fight and he would like to be involved in an interim flyweight title bout in that future.
“The next one needs to be Benavidez. He was supposed to fight me last year. He thought I was afraid, but I was hurt and couldn’t take the fight. Now I want Benavidez to pay for what he said. I want to knock him out so he can’t talk trash again, I want people to see that he is a liar. Why wouldn’t we do the interim belt now? Cejudo isn’t going to come back until the middle of next year. Fight me for the interim belt now. I can go as soon as Benavidez wants. When is he ready? I am ready now. Next month, next year, whatever – I am ready. He can’t be scared after what he said. Now is the time to prove who is afraid of who. This is the fight business, not the talk business, so let’s fight,” Figueiredo said after the event (via Matt Erickson & MIke Bohn of MMA Junkie).
Figueiredo currently sits at #3 in the UFC Bantamweight Division, with Joseph Benavidez and Jussier Formiga ranked ahead of him.
There was a little bit of controversy during the bout with Elliott after Figueiredo held onto the fight ending choke after the tap out, which Figueiredo blames on the excitement of the moment.
“The excitement of the fight – when I saw the (referee stop it), I let it go. If the (ref) says to stop, I’ll stop – and I did. It was the excitement of the fight,” says Figueiredo.
