Fight Study 84 – UFC 256 (transcript) (Patreon)

UFC 256 is the last pay-per-view for the promotion in 2020, and even though it didn’t have a lot of big names on the card, it was one of the more exciting events of the year. It’s not entirely the fault of the UFC, there have been numerous card changes before the final line-up. Originally, the event was supposed to be headlined by Kamaru Usman vs. Gilbert Burns for the welterweight title. After Burns and his coach tested positive for COVID-19, Burns was pulled from the card. That allowed Usman to bow out from the card himself and rehab some lingering injuries. With one headliner gone, the UFC targeted a possible women’s featherweight title match-up between Amanda Nunes and Megan Anderson. An injury to Nunes forced her off this card as well, and again UFC 256 was without a headliner. Trying their luck one more time, the UFC bumped up the co-main event, Petr Yan vs Aljamain Sterling to be the main event. Unfortunately, personal reasons took Yan off the card, and it appeared that no other champion was going to be able to fill in that slot. Enter Deiveson Figueiredo. In one of the best main events of the year, Deiveson Figueiredo had a majority draw against Brandon Moreno. Draws are rare in title fights, but not unheard of. Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson’s first title fight ended in a draw, with Woodley holding on to the title and setting up a rematch a few months later.

With Figueiredo’s last title fight ending in less than two minutes, he agreed to a 21-day turnaround. That is the quickest a champion has returned to headline a card. Keep in mind that Figueiredo doesn’t have an easy cut. He had to repeat this process with even less time than his fight at UFC 255. Even if his fight was short, the preparation for a title fight takes a toll on the body. Luckily for Figueiredo, his opponent Brandon Moreno also fought on the UFC 255 card and had the same turnaround time as him. What were the odds? This has never happened in a title fight, so we got to witness some history Saturday night. The fight ended in a draw, but no one seemed to be complaining. It also helps that the fight itself was exciting.

Coming into this match-up, Figueiredo claims to have been fighting a serious stomach infection that kept him in the hospital until 2 A.M. the day before the fight. Right after the event, Figueiredo was transported back immediately to the hospital. This could explain his fighting style for this match-up, but it shouldn’t be used as an excuse.

The fight started with Figueiredo relying almost exclusively on head movement to get himself out of danger. Although there was some feinting early on, this was abandoned once Moreno started to find some success with jabs to the face, hooks to the body, and initiated takedowns. This isn’t normally how Figueiredo operates. Look back at his fights with Alex Perez, Joseph Benavidez, and Alexandre Pantoja, and you see that Figueiredo will feint with half steps and only swing hooks when they’re already charging forward. This time around, Figueiredo fought almost with a sense of disdain. At no point did he seem to respect the power of Moreno, marching forward and absorbing shots at an alarming rate. The way he moved was reminiscent of King Mo Lawal and Takanori Gomi. Both King Mo and Gomi were wrestlers that fell in love with their hands. They found success by wading in with leaping hooks and uppercuts. Since they could count on being better wrestlers than most of their opponents, they had no problem sprawling on any takedown attempts and punishing opponents as they got back up. What helped both Lawal and Gomi was that they fought in a ring where it’s easier to corner opponents. Figueiredo didn’t have that luxury. Not only that but when Moreno went for takedowns, he attempted them from the clinch where he was less susceptible to guillotine and choke attempts.

Figueiredo had a lot of success with timing the right hand over Moreno’s jabs, but Moreno returned with hooks to the body and followed up with jabs again when Figueiredo stopped moving his head. Moreno kept his head constantly in motion, sticking his chin out to try and bait Figueiredo into overextending. It wasn’t as fluid as a prime Anderson Silva or Roy Jones Jr, but it was quick enough to keep Figueiredo from unloading on a stationary target. When Figueiredo did get taken down, he used single butterfly hooks to elevate Moreno’s hips and scramble back up.

It wasn’t until the second round where Figueiredo started throwing low kicks to try and off-balance Moreno. It didn’t seem to bother Moreno, as he still landed punches whenever Figueiredo gave his tell. Did you notice? Whenever Figueiredo dipped his lead shoulder, you could expect a hook to follow. Sometimes Figueiredo would mix in elbows to hurt Moreno, but when he threw hooks, he became predictable. It gave Moreno time to counter. It also helped that Moreno’s granite chin held up during exchanges. Moreno also managed to time Figueiredo’s forward movements and took him down multiple times. It doesn’t help that Figueiredo kept crossing his feet when moving sideways and was careless with his stance switches.

There was a moment in the third round when Figueiredo landed a kick right to the groin of Moreno. It’s not to say it was intentional, but it disrupted the flow of the fight. It was bad enough that a point was deducted from Figueiredo. Looking at the scorecards now, that point deduction cost him the victory. Two of the three judges had the fight scored at two rounds apiece, and just one more point would have been enough for Figueiredo.   

It was a tough break, but Moreno found a way back and won the fourth round on all the judge’s scorecards. Moreno found his range and landed with hooks, uppercuts, and kicks. Figueiredo is still the champion for a reason. Figueiredo stalked Moreno throughout the rest of the match and didn’t stop throwing hooks. He also threw lead elbows and kept throwing kicks, and one of them could have broken Moreno’s forearm. But just when Figueiredo thought he was on his way to finishing Moreno, Moreno would fire back with an overhand right to let him know that he’s still in the fight. By the time that Figueiredo was worried about the strikes from Moreno, he had already absorbed a lot of punishment. It was clear that both fighters were leaving everything on the table, and neither fighter wanted to go the distance and risk a loss. The good news was that neither fighter got an “L” on their record, and this fight sets up a rematch for some time in 2021.

The draw wasn’t what the fans wanted, but the close nature of this fight meant that it wasn’t too controversial. The next fight for both Figueiredo and Moreno is each other, or it should be anyway. With more time to prepare, we should see should the best versions possible. Every champion needs a good rival to cement his legacy, and Figueiredo may have found his early. The men’s 125-pound weight class doesn’t have the deepest roster, but a rivalry at the top can reinvigorate the rest of the division. If this fight is any indication of how another fight could go, we’re in for a treat.

Next, Tony Ferguson and Charles Oliveira fought in the co-main event. Oliveira dominated Ferguson for three rounds, scoring 30-26 on all three judges’ scorecards. Going into this fight, many were wondering how Ferguson would look after the tough fight against Justin Gaethje. Oliveira is on a roll, but he’s never fought someone as highly ranked as Ferguson. Oliveira has fought multiple UFC champions, ranging from Anthony Pettis to Frankie Edgar and Max Holloway. Each time, he’s fallen short. At UFC 256, he broke that curse. You could say he made up for all his past losses with this fight. It sounds like an exaggeration but try to think of the last time you’ve seen Ferguson in so much trouble in a fight.

  Ferguson started with stance switches early, but Oliveira was prepared. Chute Boxe hasn’t had a strong men’s contender in a while, but Oliveira could break that drought. His team had him ready in the striking exchanges. Oliveira’s coaches, Jorge Patino "Macaco" and Diego Lima have done a great job in getting Oliveira comfortable on the feet.  

The stance switching of Ferguson was thwarted by the constant low kicks of Oliveira. It was Oliveira who was moving from orthodox to southpaw. From orthodox, Oliveira targeted Ferguson’s calves with kicks from his rear leg. When Oliveira switched to southpaw, he aimed for the inside of Ferguson’s legs. These two kicks were constant and kept Ferguson off balance. Ferguson couldn’t get his jab game going, and once he thought a kick was coming for his legs, Oliveira went high and caught Ferguson on his head. It was partially blocked by Ferguson’s left hand, but the damage was done. Ferguson was stumbling and Oliveira kept marching forward. Even though Ferguson had some success with counter hooks and elbows, it wasn’t enough. Not even Ferguson expected what came next.

Oliveira clinched up with Ferguson and secured a body lock. He then picked up Ferguson and slammed him down, right into side control. This was something out of a vintage Matt Hughes playbook. On the ground, Oliveira softened Ferguson up with shoulder strikes, but it was the pressure from top control that seemed to bother Ferguson. Oliveira used Ferguson’s movements from the bottom to transition to full mount and punch him some more. Right at the end of the first round, Oliveira got a hold of Ferguson’s left arm and secured the armbar. It was locked in tight, to the point where Oliveira got Ferguson’s forearm under his armpit and fully extended the armbar. Ferguson was saved by the bell, but just like the head kick, the damage was done.

Ferguson’s left arm seemed compromised from that point out, possibly from the armbar and the blocked high kick. Oliveira timed a right hand with a knee tap that he turned into a single leg takedown. This was exactly the move that one of his former opponents, Frankie Edgar, used on him. No matter how many times Ferguson tried to scramble out, Oliveira was on top and landing strikes. Even an attempted buggy submission from Ferguson wasn’t enough.

Ferguson tried to come out more aggressive in the third round, but Oliveira caught a high kick on his forearm and tripped him down. Even when Ferguson popped back up, Oliveira dropped down for Ferguson’s hips and picked him up, just like in the first round. Oliveira kept Ferguson on the ground for the rest of the fight, and went for multiple submission attempts, almost securing a triangle armbar.

The win puts Oliveira on an eight-fight win streak, and if he isn’t on the list of possible contenders for the title, the whole rankings system is a sham. No one else at lightweight is on the streak that Oliveira is on. If he’s not given a title shot, a #1 contender’s match is the only thing that makes sense. Since Dustin Poirier already has a bout with Conor McGregor scheduled, perhaps a fight against the #5 ranked Dan Hooker could be put together. The rumor is that Justin Gaethje is being scheduled to welcome former Bellator champion, Michael Chandler, so he might be out of the running. Hooker may have lost his last fight, but this is still an exciting match-up.

For Ferguson, he’s in a much tougher spot. Yes, this is his second loss in a row, but they’re not giving him any easy fights. It’s also hard not to feel bad for him, considering how the UFC kept him as far away from McGregor as possible and the fights against Khabib Nurmagomedov constantly fell through for one reason or another.  Ferguson isn’t the easiest guy to promote, but there’s no telling what kind of title run he could have had if he had been given a shot earlier. When thinking of Nurmagomedov’s legacy, some note that his title reign consisted of only three title defenses, but he cleared out most of the division. The same case could have been made for Ferguson, the man went on a 12 fight win streak and was only given an interim title opportunity after his 9th straight win in a row. At 36 years old, he’s one of the elder statesmen of the division. His training camps are brutal and unorthodox, and there’s no telling how much of his career has been cut short because of that. If the UFC is still trying to build him up as a contender, it makes sense to give him someone lower in the rankings. Diego Ferreira is another fighter that’s built up a nice win streak, and he could be used as a litmus test to where Ferguson stands. If Ferreira wins, he gets another victory over a former champion and can climb further in the rankings. If Ferguson can win impressively in his next fight out, it’ll show there’s still some tread left on his tires.

UFC 256 wasn’t the most stacked card, but the action made it a memorable pay-per-view to end the year. As long as 2021 isn’t a repeat of 2020, we can expect some great fights soon. Otherwise, the only undefeated fighter to emerge from this year will be COVID-19.