let’s go baby!!
— Lerone Murphy (@LeroneMurphy)
December 3, 2020
Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. The
Ultimate Fighting Championship is now starting the new year off
with three events in a week. The news first broke from
MMA Fighting on Wednesday night that the promotion is adding an
event to its early 2021 calendar. The Jan.
20 Fight Night event is expected to take place on Yas Island in
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, between the card headlined by
Max
Holloway vs. Calvin
Kattar and UFC 257 topped by Conor
McGregor vs. Dustin
Poirier 2. Three bouts have been reported, with two confirmed
by other outlets, including a flyweight encounter
initially reported by
Combate between newly signed Francisco
Figueiredo (11-3-1, 1 NC) and Jerome
Rivera (10-3).
Figueiredo, brother of flyweight kingpin Deiveson
Figueiredo, will make his way down to 125 pounds after a career
spent mostly at bantamweight. “Sniper” is riding a three-fight
unbeaten streak into his signing, with two knockouts over Vitor
Leandro and
Manoel Moreira dos Santos Jr., followed by a draw against
Eduardo
de Souza Silva. The Brazilian has not competed since September
2019, but not for a lack of trying – a previously scheduled pairing
under the Jungle Fight banner with Klinger
Pinheiro Ferreira was scuttled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Figueiredo posts an impressive finish rate of 91 percent.
Rivera was originally slated to face Ode
Osbourne at the Jan. 30 event, but he was pulled from that
matchup due to undisclosed reasons. Signed from the 2020 season of
Dana White’s Contender Series, Rivera made his
debut a month and a half later when he met Tyson Nam in
September. Nam ultimately punched him out, to become the first man
to stop “The Renegade” with strikes. The loss broke at three-fight
win streak which saw him tap out Gene Perez
and Kendrick
Latchman en route to a spot on the Contender Series. Rivera
owns a 70 percent submission rate, and he has never won a fight by
knockout.
The first fight for the Jan. 20 card announced by MMA Fighting was
actually a featherweight clash between Lerone
Murphy (9-0-1) and Douglas
Silva de Andrade (26-3, 1 NC). Britain’s Murphy has yet to
taste defeat as a pro, fighting to a draw in his promotional debut
at UFC 242 in 2019. He rebounded from that draw with a first-round
knockout of Ricardo
Ramos in July. De Andrade will be making his return to the
promotion after nearly a year off, although a match in March
against Movsar
Evloev was scratched when “D’Silva” pulled out. The Brazilian
has alternated wins and losses in his last five, starting with a
spinning back fist knockout of Enrique
Briones in 2016.
Finally, MyMMANews
reported on Thursday that the women’s flyweight tilt between
Roxanne
Modafferi (25-17) and Viviane
Araujo (9-2) has been moved up 10 days to serve on this card
instead. Since returning to the Octagon in 2017 from a victory with
Invicta Fighting Championships, Modafferi has
not won or lost consecutive bouts. Of note, her decision win over
Maycee
Barber marked one of the biggest upsets in 2020. Her opponent
Araujo is also trying to put a win streak together, as she suffered
a loss to Jessica Eye
only to bounce back and take a unanimous verdict over Montana
De La Rosa in September.
