Joseph Benavidez, one of the most beloved fighters in mixed martial arts, didn’t get the storybook finish he had so desperately hoped to get. But the UFC may have found itself yet another dominant champion.
Brazilian Deiveson Figueiredo, fighting against mind-boggling handicaps, physically overwhelmed Benavidez. Figueiredo knocked Benavidez down three times with thudding right hands and then choked him out with 12 seconds left in the first round Saturday on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi to claim the vacant UFC flyweight championship.
They’d fought in February for the vacant belt and Figueiredo, who was won 19 of 20 as a pro and finished 10 of them in the first round, won by knockout.