07/19/2020 - 10:07
- Clarín.com
- sports
Deiveson Figueiredo seized the vacant title of the flies in the UFC this Sunday, dominating Joseph Benavídez and making him surrender with a key that suffocated him, 12 seconds after the end of the first round. For his part, Jack Hermansson surprised Kelvin Gastelum, who also gave up in the first episode, by not bearing the punishment on one of his legs, in the penultimate contest of the third UFC function in eight days.
Like the previous billboards, this one unfolded on the Isle of Fights , the UFC's base of operations in Abu Dhabi.
Figueiredo (19-1) became just the third 125-pound champion in UFC history, claiming his second dominant win in five months over Benavidez.
Figueiredo dominated & knocked down three times Joseph Benavidez and then choked him out at 4:48 of the first round in the main event of Sunday's # UFCFightIsland3 in the title fight at Abu Dhabi for Flyweight belt! #DeivesonFigueiredo is Bad, Bad Man !! 👑💪pic.twitter.com / M2WvV8fdkr
- Boris Radonjić (@BorisRadonjic) July 19, 2020The Brazilian veteran threw the American three times with punches, and failed in several attempts to strangle him. He got it at the end of the round, and Benavídez was apparently unconscious.
"I knew my time was coming, and this is it," said Figueiredo after the victory. "I will continue to defend this belt, I will be an active champion," he added.
Benavidez (28-7) fell to 0-4 in UFC title fights. He had never given up in combat during his 14-year professional career.
The main lawsuit was a rematch of the one made on February 29 for the same belt that Henry Cejudo vacated when he retired. Figueiredo had not given the weight for that fight in Norfolk, Virginia, so he could not take the scepter despite knocking out Benavídez in the second round.
(With information from AP)