A bantamweight fight between former champions Deiveson Figueiredo and Cody Garbrandt is reportedly in the works for UFC 300 in Las Vegas on April 13th.
That’s the word according to the AGFight site out of Brazil and comes after ex-bantamweight champ Garbrandt had called for the fight after earning his second win in a row with a first round KO of Brian Kelleher at UFC 296 last month.
“I would love to fight Deiveson Figueiredo,” Garbrandt had told reporters. “I think that’s a great fight – two former world champions. He’s now at the bantamweight division. That’s a fight that should have happened years ago. I was obviously taken out from COVID, but flyweight is not my weight – bantamweight is. I feel really good here. I love that fight. I talked to Sean (Shelby) about it. He’s all for it. UFC 300 – I think that would be an amazing, amazing card to put us on.”
A former bantamweight champ, Garbrandt suffered a dismal run of form between 2017-2021, losing five out of his six fights during that period, including four defeats via strikes.
Garbrandt has also had more than his fair share of injury woes along the way, but after a lengthy layoff returning with two wins in 2023 has now given the 32-year-old a big opportunity to make a big impact in 2024.
However, while it’s the fight he called for, going up the 36-year-old ex-flyweight champ Figueiredo is a daunting challenge, especially as he’s already proven he can be a threat at 135lbs by earning a unanimous decision victory over Rob Font in his divisional debut last month.
While not officially announced yet, Figueiredo vs. Garbrandt would join a UFC 300 card that doesn’t yet have a main or co-main event announced, but will also feature a women’s bantamweight title fight between Zhang Weili and Yan Xiaonan, Charles Oliveira vs. Arman Tsarukyan, Jiri Prochazka vs. Aleksander Rakic, Aljamain Sterling vs. Calvin Kattar and Bo Nickal vs. Cody Brundage.
