Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Brandon Moreno named new UFC 256 main event; Ferguson vs. Oliveira co-main

UFC 256 headlining bouts

• UFC 256 main event: Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Brandon Moreno

• UFC 256 co-main event: Tony Ferguson vs. Charles Oliveira

Just three days after Deveison Figueiredo defended his UFC flyweight championship, he has inked a deal to defend it against Brandon Moreno.

Figueiredo headlined UFC 255, putting the flyweight belt on the line against Alex Perez. He made quick work of Perez, submitting him in less than two minutes.

Moreno, the No. 1 ranked flyweight, also fought on the UFC 255 fight card, stopping Brandon Royval with one tick left on the clock in the first round of their featured preliminary bout.

A day later, on Sunday, news that the latest UFC 256 headlining bout was nixed. Petr Yan was set to put his bantamweight belt on the line against Aljamain Sterling, but had to withdraw. Yan later said that he was forced off of the fight card because of visa issues.

UFC president Dana White must have already known about Yan likely being off the card on Saturday night, as he mentioned at the UFC 255 post-fight press conference that he was working on keeping Figueiredo and Moreno in Vegas to fight in December.

On Tuesday, the UFC announced that the bout had been signed. Figueiredo will make the second defense of his belt in back-to-back pay-per-views, when he faces Moreno in the UFC 256 main event on Dec. 12 in Las Vegas.

Joining them on the card in the UFC 256 co-main event is a pivotal lightweight bout between Tony Ferguson and Charles Oliveira, which was also further confirmed on Tuesday.

UFC 256 was initially planned to be a championship tripleheader; what happened?

The UFC’s initial plan was for UFC 256 to feature welterweight champion Kamaru Usman defending against Gilbert Burns, women’s double-champ Amanda Nunes putting her featherweight belt on the line opposite Megan Anderson, and Yan vs. Sterling.

In the midst of signing Yan vs. Sterling, the Usman vs. Burns bout fell off the card when Usman indicated that he would not be physically ready to compete on the Dec. 12 fight card.

Nunes vs. Anderson was then elevated to main event status. That lasted only a few days before Nunes withdrew because of undisclosed medical issues.

That left Yan vs. Sterling as the likely UFC 256 main event, but now even that fight is a bust, leading us to Figueiredo vs. Moreno as the latest, and hopefully final, headliner.

TRENDING > Khabib Nurmagomedov teases meeting with Dana White; does retirement decision loom?

Trending Video > Dana White freaks out over Mike Tyson vs Roy Jones Jr. news

(Subscribe to MMAWeekly.com on YouTube)