The injury that left Former UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo unable to continue in a headlining fight against Cory Sandagen earlier this month has been diagnosed as a tear to the anterolateral ligament in his knee.
The two fighters legs had been tangled up during the 2nd round of the fight after a leg lock battle, and just when the danger seemed to be over Sandhagen shifted his position to land ground-and-pound and caused the injury.
“It’s very painful,” Figueiredo’s coach Alex Davis told MMA Fighting. “But he did not get finished. It was just a freak accident.”
The good news for the 37-year-old Figueiredo however is that the injury isn’t bad enough to require surgery, which will significantly reduce the amount of time he has to spend on the sidelines.
And according to Davis, the Brazilian veteran is “already asking to fight again,” as he looks to get back to winning ways following his losses to Sandhagen and Petr Yan in the past 7 months.
While things haven’t been going so well for Figueiredo lately, his campaign up at bantamweight did start promisingly enough with three wins in a row against respected opponents in Rob Font, Cody Garbrandt and Marlon Vera, and as such he still remains ranked No.6 in the weight class.
