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Is Figueiredo the next champion headed for a contract dispute?

The fighter is known as the God of War, the reigning defending 125-pound champ Deiveson Figueiredo is rapidly approaching levels of unhappiness with the company that rivals that of Francis Nganou. Between financial problems, not liking the challengers and a possible weight class change, Fig is currently leaving the 125-pound division in a state of limbo.

The Brazilian champ has been very vocal for some time now that he believes that he deserves money and a different contract, but most recently the issue began with the UFC wanting to make a 4th and final fight between him and Brandon Moreno (series tied at 1-1-1 a piece) right after their trilogy. Fig claims that he wanted to fight someone else and didn’t see the point of yet another fight, none the less the UFC went ahead and tried booking the 4th fight.

However, Fig is currently nursing a hand injury and was going to be less than 100% for the scheduled defence. This prompted the UFC to create an interim belt fight between Moreno and Kara-France on July 30th, which upset Fig who felt disrespected by the fact that the UFC would create a belt without giving him the time to properly recover.

Fig even feels that Brandon Moreno doesn’t deserve a shot at the interim, but rather Alexander Pantoja.

While Fig recovers and waits for his next opponent, he has been somewhat vocal about a possible move to 135 and facing the champion there (currently Aljamain Sterling). This would be the first time since Cejudo beat Marlon Moraes that the 125 pound champ moves up to fight for the 135 pound belt.

But with an injury, asking for more money and the fact that the UFC has other plans does not make for the greatest combination when it comes to contract negotiations.

From the standpoint of a fan, I would love to see Fig fight the champ at 135 as it would not only be entertaining but also give us a rare champ vs champ sighting. There is no lack of options for the champion at 125 however as most fans want Moreno #4 but right behind him are also Kara-France, Pantoja, Askarov and Royval.

As a champion, Fig has faced just about everyone put in front of him and with a record of 21-2-1 he isn’t someone that we can say is scared to fight, so perhaps this dispute is all financial and nothing more.

At this level, Fig has turned into a heel character. While he was never the most beloved fighter by fans, he certainly never got booed by them the way he is now. His best bet is to keep playing the bad guy and get his PPV numbers up while making himself undeniable.

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