It has been a whirlwind 13 months for the two warriors. The fight ended with each 125-pounder swinging wildly and egging the other on. For the most part, they were patient, striking, counter-striking, at times engaging in flurries. Neither fighter was in danger of being finished. Judge Wade Vierra had it tied at 38 going into the fifth.
It ends up the fifth round wasn’t decisive in the scoring – judges Chris Crail and Michael Bell had Figueiredo up 39-36 after four rounds. The champ popped back up, though, not seriously harmed. The third knockdown came in the fifth round, a straight right early in the round that put Moreno on his seat. Moreno landed more strikes (106-95) and more significant strikes (105-86) and landed more significant strikes in each of the last four rounds, but the challenger scored three knockdowns – two in the third round – as well as two takedowns to one for Moreno. “Obviously, I think I won but it is what it is right now.” Maybe he connected with more power,” said Moreno, 28, who was making his first title defense. “I feel like I threw combinations with more speed. There is no one more real in this sport than Brandon Moreno.Moreno (19-6-2) replied later in Spanish that he was ready to go again, but he felt he did enough to get the nod. … So in the moment when Dana White comes with that belt, I’ll be the real one.” The other guy put out a bunch of excuses. “In that moment when Dana White puts the belt around my body, I won’t care about interim or anything else,” he said. And Moreno is just doing what he has to do.īut if his arm is raised on Saturday, there will be no asterisk on his record in his mind. Moreno’s confidence is sky-high, too, and though he’s not fighting Figueiredo again, who holds the belt, he won’t consider himself any less of a champion if he wins Saturday.įigueiredo may not fight at flyweight again, though he hasn’t formally made that announcement. More confidence in the Octagon is very important.” The last one against Askarov, he was impressive. But after that, he looked different against Bontorin and Cody Garbrandt. “He lost to me, he won against Tyson Nam and then he lost against Royval. “We can talk different stuff with technique and that stuff, but the thing he’s improved most is his confidence,” Moreno said.
The reason, Moreno said, is simple: Confidence. After losing to Moreno, Kara-France defeated Tyson Nam but was submitted by Royval, meaning he’d lost two of his last three.īut he knocked out Rogerio Bontorin at UFC 259 and Cody Garbrandt at UFC 269 before scoring an impressive win by decision over Askar Askarov in Columbus, Ohio, in March. He defeated Kara-France, Jussier Formiga and Brandon Royval to earn the title shot and then has had three exceptional bouts with Figueiredo.īut he acknowledge that Kara-France may be at the same point now that he was at in 2019. He won his fight, came back and got on a roll and turned himself into one of the best flyweights in the world. That fight serves as sort of a line of demarcation in Moreno’s career.Ī little over a year earlier, he was cut by the UFC. 14, 2019, in Las Vegas that Moreno won by split decision. The fight with Kara-France is a rematch of a bout they had at UFC 245 on Dec. I just like to be nice to the people, and that’s it, man.”īrandon Moreno's back-and-forth championship trilogy with Deiveson Figueiredo put him on the map for MMA fans worldwide.
If it happens, I’d love it and thank you so much. A lot of people were there very excited to get to know me. A few months back, in March, I went to London and I had a meet-and-greet there. “And in the United States, I have a huge fan base, too. “Of my fan base, the biggest is in Mexico,” he said. Moreno, as the massive ovation at UFC 270 proved, is a star with everyone and it’s almost as much because of his easy-going nature and self-effacing style as it is his fight style.
Their bouts at UFC 256 and UFC 270 were chosen as Fight of the Night, and Moreno won Performance of the Night at UFC 263.īut Moreno’s popularity expands beyond just the Mexicans from his native land who have grown to adore him and the Mexican Americans who love his aggressive, high-contact style. 22 at UFC 270.Īll three were scintillating fights. And he lost it by the narrowest of margins on Jan. Moreno won the belt with a rear-naked choke submission at UFC 263 in Glendale, Arizona, on June 12, 2021. Figueiredo was the reigning champion prior to their first fight and kept the title when the bout was scored a majority draw at UFC 256 in Las Vegas on Dec. He lost his belt that night, dropping a crushing split-decision to Figueiredo in their third fight, all of which had different outcomes. “The kid’s a legitimate star,” UFC president Dana White said of Moreno, who fights Kai Kara-France on Saturday at UFC 277 for the interim flyweight title, not long after that bout.
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