The Ultimate Fighting Championship heads to Norfolk, Virginia on Saturday night for UFC Fight Night 169 Norfolk: Joseph Benavidez vs. Deiveson Figueiredo, the event will be live streamed online exclusive on ESPN +.
Mixed Martial Arts veteran Joseph Benavidez will get another crack at the world title when he takes on Brazilian Deiveson Figueiredo in the main event of UFC Norfolk.
Benavidez is a veteran of the WEC and UFC, he has never held a world title and has fought for the belt three times.
The first title shot he had was in the WEC when he took on bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz, the fight went all 5 rounds and Benavidez ending up losing a split decision.
His second world title shot came in 2012 when he challenged Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson at UFC 152 for the Inaugural UFC Men’s Flyweight championship. Again he lost a close split decision and came up short.
A year late he went on to rematch Johnson and got knocked out in the first round. Tonight he will have a shot at UFC gold and to finally achieve his dream of becoming a UFC champion and will fight for the title that Henry Cejudo vacated.
Benavidez and Cejudo fought in 2016 at The Ultimate Fighter: Tournament of Champions Finale and Benavidez came out on top with the win.
Deiveson Figueiredo failed to make the 125 pound limit so he is no longer eligible to fight for the title, only Benavidez can win the belt.
Top female featherweight contenders Felicia Spencer and Megan Anderson will fight in separate bouts.
Main Card
Catchweight (127.5 lbs): Joseph Benavidez vs. Deiveson Figueiredo
Women’s Featherweight: Felicia Spencer vs. Zarah Fairn dos Santos
Light Heavyweight: Ion Cutelaba vs. Magomed Ankalaev
Women’s Featherweight: Megan Anderson vs. Norma Dumont Viana
Catchweight (149.5 lbs): Grant Dawson vs. Darrick Minner
Preliminary undercard
Bantamweight: Gabriel Silva vs. Kyler Phillips
Middleweight: Brendan Allen vs. Tom Breese
Heavyweight: Marcin Tybura vs. Sergey Spivak
Lightweight: Luis Pena vs. Steve Garcia
Featherweight: Jordan Griffin vs. T.J. Brown
Featherweight: Aalon Cruz vs. Spike Carlyle
Welterweight: Ismail Naurdiev vs. Sean Brady
UFC Fight Night Norfolk: Joseph Benavidez vs. Deiveson Figueiredo takes place on February 29, 2020 live stream online on ESPN+ at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT / Prelims at 5:00 p.m. ET/PT (plus.espn.com/ufc).
