Deiveson Figueiredo (photo via YouTube)

By FCF Staff

Following Deiveson Figueiredo’s impressive, championship win on Saturday, Dana White’s confirmed the UFC has no plans to close the flyweight division.

In recent years, there’s been considerable speculation about the future of the division. At one juncture, the UFC released several flyweights and the expectation was the division would be shutdown.

But, after Henry Cejudo relinquished the flyweight belt to focus on his run at bantamweight, the UFC booked Figueiredo and Joseph Benavidez to determine a new champ. On Saturday, Figueiredo choked Benavidez out in the headliner of UFC Fight Island 2 and secured the division’s belt.

After the event, White was asked about the future of the flyweight division. The UFC President shot down the possibility of it being shuttered (quote via MMA Junkie).

“When was the last time I talked about getting rid of the (flyweight) division?” White said, while referencing the first fight between Benavidez and Figueiredo, which saw the latter miss weight for it. “Yeah, it’s here. Look at how good this guy looked tonight. Look what he did. (There was) a ton of controversy in the first fight from weight to headbutts. (There was) no controversy in this one. The guy came in and did what he said he was going to do against the No. 2 ranked guy in the world and he looked damn good doing it.”

And when asked specifically about the new champ’s performance on Saturday, White noted how dangerous Figueiredo is.

“Pure violence,” White said. “No controversy in this one. We have pretty nasty champions in those two divisions now.”

With this latest win, Figueiredo moved his overall record to 19-1. The only fighter to defeat the Brazilian to date is Jusssier “Formiga”, who did so by decision last year.