Brandon Moreno: Fight With Cody Garbrandt ‘Can Build The 125lb Division’

Brandon Moreno continues to make his case for a fight with Cody Garbrandt, and discusses who else may make sense

Brandon Moreno Cody Garbrandt
Photos via Instagram @theassassinbaby @cody_nolove

As the new flyweight champion, Brandon Moreno has a list of athletes he can face to defend his title the first time. He is looking to fight Cody Garbrandt, and continued to make the case for this fight.

Moreno won the title in his second fight with then-champ Deiveson Figueiredo, after the two had a crazy first fight that ended in a draw. The second fight was not nearly as close, with Brandon getting the submission in the third round.

Following that fight he has expressed interest in a fight with former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt, rather than a trilogy with Deiveson. This was something that he doubled down on while speaking with Brendan Schaub recently, saying that this fight would be good for the division.

“Cody Garbrandt’s wanting to come to the division. He’s a former champ. He’s not in the best place of his career, but he’s a name,” Moreno said.

“He’s a possibility completely… That can build the 125lb division even more. It makes me feel excited.”

Brandon Moreno Has Options

That being said Brandon Moreno knows that Cody Garbrandt is a tough sell for a title shot, given that he has never fought at flyweight, and is 1-4 in his last five fights. So he has been giving some thought to who else he may face.

Alexandre Pantoja is the last man to beat the champ, back in 2018, and The Assassin Baby wants to avenge that loss. He says that if Pantoja can win his next fight, against Brandon Royval in August, that could be the first person he defends his belt against.

“Pantoja against Royval is coming soon. Pantoja, he beat me before. He’s my last loss on my record. (I’d fight) Pantoja if he can upset Royval,” Moreno said.

That said, he has made it clear that he is not interested in a third fight with Figueiredo. While the former champ had a ton of excuses after the second fight, Brandon felt like he beat the Brazilian thoroughly enough that he does not need to do it again.

“If I need to fight again with this guy, I’m not the kind of fighter that gets too much confidence. I’m very careful of everything because the guy is powerful, he has really good power in his right hand. So if I have the trilogy with him, I’d be very careful of everything,” Moreno said.

“To be honest, obviously I don’t know because I’m not the matchmaker, but I don’t think it’s my next fight. I don’t know, obviously, but I don’t think it’s my next fight. I think he needs to fight one more time.

“It’s not because I’m scared or something like that, obviously not,” Moreno added. “It’s because the fight was domination. I dominated this guy.”

Who do you want to see Brandon Moreno fight next? Should his first title defense be against Cody Garbrandt, or someone else?

Published on July 29, 2021 at 1:42 pm
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