New Champ Deiveson Figueiredo Receives Hero’s Welcome Back Home

Deiveson Figueiredo recently returned home to his hometown of Soure, Brazil, and clearly his  championship win earlier this month caught the attention of the people.

Figueiredo receive’s hero’s welcome

As you can see by watching the video below, hundreds of people were on hand to celebrate Figueiredo’s championship win over Joseph Benavidez at UFC Fight Island 2.The powerful flyweight won the belt on July 19th by choking Benavidez out in round one.

Soure is located in the northern state of Para in Brazil, and according to Wikipedia, the town’s population is around 22,000. So, when you consider it’s size, the welcome Figueiredo received is particularly impressive

A “Rocky-style statue” of Figueiredo could go up?

The 32-year-old champion also spoke with MMA Fighting recently, and Figueiredo reported that his hometown is looking into erecting a statue of him.

“There was a lot of people there, I can’t even explain,” Figueiredo said. “The people from Soure showed their love, and you can be sure that I’ll work even harder to bring them more happiness.”

“That idea is getting traction here,” he said. “The mayor said I’m getting a Rocky-style statue. Man, that’s awesome.

That’s another dream of mine coming to fruition. I’ve always told my brother I’d love to have a statue in my hometown, and now I’m getting it after winning the belt.”

How about that? Not too many fighters, let alone people, can say there’s a statue of them in in their hometown.

With his win over Benavidez, Figueiredo moved his overall record to 19-1. It’s not clear when and who he’ll fight in his first title defense.

The Brazilian has gone 8-1 in the UFC to date, with his only loss coming via decision ton Jussier ‘Formiga’ last year.