Granting Cody Garbrandt an immediate flyweight title shot would be "unfair", claims Deiveson Figueiredo

Newly crowned UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo believes that it would be unfair to grant former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt a flyweight title shot immediately.

Cody Garbrandt recently returned to the Octagon to shake off a dismal run of three-straight losses by knocking out Raphael Assuncao. While this spectacular knockout win definitely puts the former champ a win or couple away from being a title contender at 135, Cody Garbrandt has recently expressed interest in dropping down to flyweight to challenge Figueiredo for the title.

Cody Garbrandt has also claimed that he is the #1 contender at flyweight, even though he hasn't debuted at the weight class yet.

“As far as I know [I’m the number one contender]. I don’t have a contract in hand, I’m waiting on that with Ali [Abdelaziz] and Dana [White], and Sean [Shelby] and Mick [Maynard],” Garbrandt told ESPN. “I’ve actually been vocal about going to ’25 for quite some time. We spoke about it in the past before the Assuncao fight. I feel like it is great, I’m able to do it now, early still in my career. I just turned 29. Go down to ’25, challenge and win the belt there and then go back up to 135 pounds and compete with the best of them there."

The reigning champ at 125, Deiveson Figueiredo, however, believes that granting Cody Garbrandt an immediate flyweight title shot would be “unfair” to the flyweight contenders.

“We want him to prove he can make 125 pounds and fight someone in my weight class,” Figueiredo said. “After that, if he wins, he can come fight me. But we don’t agree with him coming down and skipping the line and going straight for the belt against me. He needs to prove he can make 125 and fight someone. It would be unfair if the UFC puts him straight for the belt. I think the UFC has to respect the others that worked hard for a title shot.”