Brandon Moreno says he feels Deiveson Figueiredo is fake and tries too hard to be the bad guy.
So far, UFC flyweight interim champion Brandon Moreno has had eight fights in this stint in the UFC, three of which have been against Deiveson Figueiredo. As he prepares for the fourth meeting with the champion, Moreno can’t help but feel some weirdness between the two of them. Never in the history of the UFC have two fighters faced off inside the Octagon four times. This will be the first as Moreno looks to unify his interim belt and finally move past Figueiredo once and for all.
This champion vs. champion fight will be featured on the upcoming UFC 283 fight card in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Figueiredo is from Brazil and will be fighting in front of his home crowd for the first time since 2018. To promote this fight the UFC has had these two men face off a couple of times, most recently they met in Rio back in November to participate in some media obligations, Moreno is now recalling how weird Figueiredo was during that trip.
Brandon Moreno says he believes Deiveson Figueiredo is fake and finds him to be weird
Moreno has become a fan favorite since returning to the UFC in 2019. He started his UFC career as a member of The Ultimate Fighter season 24. He had a string of ups and downs and was released from the promotion. After one fight in LFA, he returned and worked his way up to his first title shot. Now he is an interim champion and may have more people pulling for him than the actual champion. His rivalry with Figueiredo may have brought more fans to his side. He feels that Figueiredo is fake and that the fans can see that.
“He is very weird. It’s weird because you know we did the media tour and everything and it’s always the same, since that first fight with him in 2020, then Arizona, then in Anaheim, everything is so fake with him like his character and all that stuff,” he said on The MMA Hour. “He tries to look like the bad guy, but man, the people can see the fakeness on him. He tried to intimidate me here in Rio, in November but I was like man I don’t care I mean what can you do, we fought each other three times already.”
Moreno recalled his trip to Brazil to promote the fight and explained that Figueiredo’s strangeness did not stop at just the media obligations. He told a funny story of an encounter at a restaurant.
“I remember I was in the restaurant of the hotel, I was eating a sandwich with my coach and the guy came with us and he stayed like maybe like 20 seconds just watches me and that’s it,” he said. “He doesn’t try to do like nothing and I was like man, like what did you try to do? I don’t understand, it was weird. I definitely feel uncomfortable because he wasn’t trying to fight me or whatever he was just watching me so was weird, but it’s fine.”
Soon all the weirdness and interactions between these two will be behind them. This fourth fight will hopefully settle the score and both can go into their ways. So far each holds a win over the other with one draw. The bout will take place as the co-main event of UFC 283 on Jan. 21 in Brazil.
