Song Yadong submits Deiveson Figueiredo

Song Yadong came into UFC Macau needing a result that would put fresh force behind his name at bantamweight. He left with Deiveson Figueiredo tapping out, a six-figure bonus and a victory that looked very different from the kind of performance most people expected him to produce.

Song is usually measured first by his hands: the speed, the counters, the power he carries into short exchanges. Against Figueiredo, the defining moment came on the mat. The Chinese contender locked up a guillotine late in the second round and forced the former flyweight champion to submit at 4:42, ending the main event inside Galaxy Arena before a third round was needed.

It was a valuable win for more than the name on the other side of the cage. Figueiredo entered with championship experience and the sort of grappling threat that can make a striker hesitate. Song did not avoid that part of the fight. When the Brazilian committed to another entry late in the second round, Song turned the attack into the finish.

Song wins outside his usual script

The opening five minutes did not belong entirely to Song. Figueiredo found moments where his pressure and control made the fight uncomfortable, and the former champion gave no sign that he planned to spend the night standing at range. That was the danger from the start: even at bantamweight, Figueiredo remains a fighter who can force a bout into messy positions and make one mistake costly.

Song returned for the second round with more control over the space between them. He was no longer giving Figueiredo the same comfortable path forward, and the fight began to look more like the contest the younger man wanted. The finish arrived when Figueiredo changed levels again. Song caught the neck during the attempt, held the position and squeezed until the tap came.

For a fighter known far more for striking than submissions, there was a sharp satisfaction in the ending. Song did not have to spend the night proving that he could punch with a former champion. He finished him in the area where Figueiredo expected to create problems.

• Song defeated a former UFC champion without needing a decision or a long striking battle.
• The submission gave him an immediate response after his previous setback at bantamweight.
• His grappling finish adds another layer for future opponents preparing around his boxing.
• The UFC rewarded the main-event performance with a $100,000 bonus.

Figueiredo finds no rescue in grappling

Figueiredo’s move to bantamweight has always carried a difficult question. He arrived from flyweight with the experience, confidence and résumé of a champion, but the larger division does not give him the same physical advantages he once enjoyed. In Macau, he still found ways into the fight. He just could not keep the dangerous positions on his terms.

The loss is particularly painful because Figueiredo was not being shut out before the submission. He had enough early success to make Song work and enough threat to keep the main event tense. Then one attempted takedown handed Song the exact opening he needed. Against a ranked opponent fighting in front of his own supporters, that single mistake ended the night.

Song puts his name back in the queue

Song did not use the interview after the fight to chase one particular opponent. He credited the people around him for the work on his grappling and made it clear that the next assignment can come from the UFC. That was a sensible answer after a night like this. The win already said enough.

Bantamweight is too crowded for any contender to waste momentum. A victory over Figueiredo does not automatically put Song into a title fight, but a main-event submission over a former champion is the type of result that keeps a fighter in meaningful matchups. It also gives the matchmakers a different version of Song to work with: not only the compact striker who can hurt opponents on the feet, but a contender capable of closing a fight when a wrestling exchange appears.

That matters because top bantamweights prepare for small margins. Everyone at that level can defend obvious attacks. Everyone can study the favourite combinations and the usual routes to victory. Song has now added a result that forces the next opponent to respect a threat he had not been showing often in the UFC.

Macau could have become a difficult night for him. Figueiredo had moments early, the pressure of the main event was real, and Song needed more than a routine win after his previous loss. Instead, he left with the former champion submitted, the crowd given a finish and his place near the front of the bantamweight conversation strengthened again.