The second-to-last UFC pay-per-view in 2020 wasn’t big on star power and the main card didn’t exactly deliver on jaw-dropping action but there were still a couple of standout performances.
Figueiredo appears to be just what the flyweight division needed after the UFC nearly scrapped the entire weight class a few years ago. A high-octane fighter with natural born finishing skills make Figueiredo must-see television and he’s got a growing list of contenders now vying for his championship.
While the main card didn’t deliver a ton of excitement, the prelims actually featured a couple of strong performances including viral knockout sensation Joaquin Buckley proving that his last win was absolutely no fluke.
With that said, there’s a lot to talk about with UFC 256 so we’re going to examine the best and the worst from Saturday night’s card. This is Making the Grade for UFC 256: Figueiredo vs. Perez.
[h=3]PASSES[/h]Figgy Smalls is the Illest
Ever since arriving in the UFC, Deiveson Figueiredo has been the kind of flyweight fighter the division needed.
He’s a hard-charging finisher, who comes after his opponents with the kind of signature aggression that made Chute Boxe legends like Wanderlei Silva such iconic fighters from that era. Figueiredo comes from that same kind of ideology where he’s not happy unless he’s stomping his opponent into submission.
After two devastating wins over Joseph Benavidez this year, Figueiredo faced his first task as champion with a title defense against Alex Perez, who has built his reputation on a similar style where he runs head first into the competition looking for a knockout or a submission.
While the fight didn’t result in a war between the flyweights, Figueiredo looked every bit the champion as he seized on a mistake from Perez that left him open for a guillotine choke. Once Figueiredo locked up the submission, he wasn’t letting go until he either put Perez to sleep or he got the tap.
After so much uncertainty in the division following Henry Cejudo’s exit and subsequent retirement, Figueiredo has finally restored some order now that he’s cemented as champion.
Pretty Fly for the Small Guys
It doesn’t seem all that long ago that the UFC’s flyweight division was on the brink of being dumped by the promotion.
Rumors were swirling that the promotion planned to get rid of the men’s 125-pound division with a mass exodus of fighters being released from the roster followed by former champion Demetrious Johnson being sent to ONE Championship in the first of its kind trade with the UFC.
Now two years later, Johnson is competing in Asia, former champion Henry Cejudo is retired yet the flyweight division is thriving with Figueiredo about to headline back-to-back pay-per-views — the first time that’s ever happened in UFC history.
Perhaps even more startling about the resurgence of the flyweight division is that the roster is deeper than ever with an influx of new talent that’s been making waves in recent months. Brandon Royval was a welcome addition to the division with a couple of highlight reel performances to start his UFC career before a shoulder injury put a stop to his most recent fight against Brandon Moreno.
Speaking of Moreno, he was actually released from the UFC in 2018 during that period of time where it appeared all of the flyweights would soon be looking for a job. Instead, Moreno earned his way back and he’s now won three fights in a row with a title shot expected in the UFC 256 main event on Dec. 12.
There are additional contenders like Askar Askarov nearing the top of the rankings with notable prospects like Rogerio Bontorin and Raulian Paiva working their way up the rankings. Veterans like Tyson Nam have managed to pull off huge knockouts and newcomers such as Amir Albazi appear to be great additions to the roster.
All in all, the flyweight division appears to be thriving and it’s hard to imagine anyone would have made that kind of prediction for the future when looking at the 125-pound weight class just a couple of years ago.
Boom Goes the Dynamite
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But how do you possibly follow up that knockout in your next fight?
Well the simple answer is you can’t but Buckley did his absolute best to prove that knockout was no accident after he demolished Jordan Wright at UFC 255. The fight came just five weeks after he likely locked up the Knockout of the Year award as Buckley wasted no time getting back in action to build off that win.
The last time around it was a kick that no one had ever really seen before. On Saturday night, Buckley’s knockout was a little more textbook but the visual was definitely worth watching just the same.
Obviously there’s little chance that every one of Buckley’s fights is going to result in an unforgettable ending but he’s beginning to put together a solid resume in his last couple of wins. Now it appears he’s on a collision course for a grudge match against James Krause after they’ve shared more than a few fiery words for each other in recent weeks.
That’s exactly the kind of fight Buckley needs now as he looks to build on a pair of bonus worthy wins while engaging in a real rivalry with a veteran like Krause.
[h=3]FAIL[/h]Timing is Everything
As Deiveson Figueiredo made the walk to the octagon for his title defense against Alex Perez in the UFC 255 main event, he set foot in the octagon past 1 a.m. on the east coast. While he made short work of Perez by finishing the fight before the two-minute mark in the opening round, that still doesn’t make the timing any easier to swallow.
While European fight fans are probably flipping out right now considering they routinely stay awake until 5 or 6 a.m. in order to watch a full pay-per-view card, it’s impossible to ignore that the UFC needs to find a way to get fights moving quicker so the promotion’s marquee events aren’t slogging on for more than three hours after starting at 10 p.m. ET.
Obviously no one could predict that three out of the five main card fights would go to decision much less that the co-main event, which appeared on paper to be as lopsided as any title bout in UFC history, would go all five rounds. Still, advertisements, previews for upcoming shows and constant delays just kept the card moving at a painfully slow pace.
A couple of possible solutions that the UFC could explore to remedy this problem while not giving away the advertising dollars or marketing revenue they generate during a pay-per-view broadcast.
First things first, if there’s two title fights taking place, reduce the total number of bouts on the main card from five down to four. Would it have been a great tragedy for one of the three undercard bouts to get bumped down to the prelims, which aired on ESPN2 with a sizable audience available to watch without paying $64.99 for the pay-per-view?
Second, the delays between fights have be lessened.
There are ways to advertise future cards and promote fighters competing on those events without causing 15 to 20 minute gaps between fights. Remember, unlike a typical television broadcast where a network is trying to fill up advertising space, the UFC already has the money earned from the folks buying the pay-per-view.
There’s not even a live crowd to worry about right now purchasing concessions or merchandise during the pay-per-view to justify the delays between fights.
Pay-per-view broadcasts are supposed to build to an epic conclusion, which is the main event. At UFC 255, it felt more like the audience was just waiting for the show to finally end.
[h=3]EPIC FAIL[/h]The End of the Road
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On Saturday night, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua suffered a lopsided defeat to Paul Craig after tapping out due to strikes in the second round. Rua looked uncharacteristically out of sorts after Craig took him down and essentially mauled him in the grappling exchanges.
It was a far cry from the first fight, which ended in a split draw after three grueling rounds.
Following the end of the event, White took aim at Rua while more or less telling the former light heavyweight champion that he needs to call it a career.
“[Paul Craig] looked good and not to take anything away from him at all, he came and did what he had to do tonight but just being honest, Shogun didn’t look like Shogun to me tonight,” White said at the post-fight press conference.
“Shogun looked old and looked like a shell of his former self tonight. Yeah, I’d like to see him hang it up hopefully.”
Now there’s probably some validity in White’s statement regarding retirement, especially considering Rua’s last four losses have all come after he was finished by knockout or TKO (technically his loss at UFC 255 was declared a submission but he tapped out due to strikes) and at 38 years old with 40 fights on his record, it’s not likely he’s going to suddenly become a force of nature again.
That said, Rua will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest fighters of any era after he was a PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix winner before eventually becoming the UFC champion at 205 pounds. A quick look at his record reveals that Rua faced 11 former champions from the UFC, PRIDE and Strikeforce. He was also involved in at least two Fight of the Year candidates when clashing with Dan Henderson and Antonio Rogerio Nogueria.
Those accolades speak to the kind of incredible career that Rua has put together and it feels like he deserves better than his boss telling him he looked old and like a shell of himself after suffering a tough loss.
The reality is if the UFC is truly concerned about Rua’s health and well-being going forward, they should release him from his contract and refuse to book him again.
Would another promotion snap him up and possibly allow Rua to continue moving forward? Possibly but at least the UFC would be setting a precedent that they won’t accept blood money for a fighter who probably shouldn’t be competing anymore. Those are the kinds of moves that could be made behind closed doors without the public shaming that Rua had to endure on Saturday night.
[h=3]Overall grade for UFC 255: D+[/h]
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