A bantamweight fight between Marlon Vera and Deiveson Figueiredo has been announced for UFC On ABC 7 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on August 3rd.
The 31-year-old Vera comes into the fight off the back of an unsuccessful attempt to win the 135lb title against Sean O’Malley in March, losing out by unanimous decision.
That actually marked Vera’s 2nd loss in his last three fights, having also lost out by split-decision in a fight with Cory Sandhagen in 2023, though he did pick up against Pedro Munhoz later that year.
The No.4 ranked Vera’s best form had come in the years prior to that though, having gone on a four-fight winning streak between 2021-2022 that had saw him KO Dominick Cruz and Frankie Edgar, while also earning decision wins over Rob Font and Davey Grant.
Now he’ll take on a former flyweight champion in the 36-year-old Figueiredo, who ended his four-fight title series with Brandon Moreno on a TKO loss back in January of last year, but has since made a fruitful transition up to bantamweight, having notched up wins over Rob Font and Cody Garbrandt so far to take the No.6 spot in the rankings.
Vera vs. Figueiredo is the 2nd fight to be made official for UFC On ABC 7, which will be headlined by another bantamweight battle as Cory Sandhagen goes up against Umar Nurmagomedov.
