There's a version of this fight where Deiveson Figueiredo is the gatekeeper — the name a younger contender beats to prove he belongs. Figueiredo has heard that version. He just doesn't accept it.

The 38-year-old former two-time flyweight champion headlines UFC Macau on Saturday against Song Yadong, and the framing around him has turned skeptical. He's 1-3 in his last four bantamweight fights, the losses coming to Petr Yan, Cory Sandhagen, and Umar Nurmagomedov — three of the division's most credentialed names, but losses all the same. In a weight class where contenders tend to be in their late 20s, a 38-year-old chasing a first 135-pound title shot is swimming against the actuarial tide.

Figueiredo's answer is to plant a flag further out than anyone expected. He told Sherdog he intends to fight until 43, explicitly modeling the back half of his career on fellow Brazilian Glover Teixeira, who won the light heavyweight title at 42 — the oldest first-time champion in UFC history. "I have him as a reference," Figueiredo said. "I take good care of my body and eat well. I want to retire at 43 in the UFC."

It's a bold blueprint, and the weight class makes it bolder. Teixeira's late run came at 205 pounds, where power ages gracefully and a single shot can erase a younger man's advantages. Bantamweight rewards pace, volume, and recovery — exactly the attributes that erode first. The same defiance shows up in how Figueiredo sizes up his own legacy: asked to rank the flyweight greats, he placed himself third all-time, behind only Demetrious Johnson and Henry Cejudo, and pointedly ahead of Alexandre Pantoja. Whether or not you buy the ranking, it tells you how he sees himself: not as a name on the way out, but as one of the era's defining 125-pounders who simply changed addresses.

There's unfinished business in the building, too. One of Figueiredo's recent defeats came in this very arena — Yan outpointed him at UFC Macau in 2024, snapping his bantamweight winning streak. He returns saying the preparation is different this time. After his January loss to Nurmagomedov, Figueiredo missed weight, which he attributed to a cascade of problems: a storm that delayed his flight to the United States, personal issues, and a bad mental space. "My head was messed up, I missed weight, and then I had to fight a tough guy too," he told MMA Fighting. This camp, run in Natal alongside Patricio and Patricky Pitbull, ended with a clean weigh-in at 135.5 pounds.

"I have to show that I'm still alive," Figueiredo said. "I'm still alive in the title picture."

The market isn't convinced — he's a sizable underdog against Song. But Figueiredo has spent a career being counted out and has the belts to show for the times he was right. Saturday tells us whether this is the start of a Teixeira-style third act or the night the gatekeeper framing finally sticks.