Newly minted flyweight champion Brandon Moreno won his title after fighting Deiveson Figueiredo for the second time. He says that if the former champ wants a third fight, he has to get a win over someone else first.
The first time Moreno fought Figueiredo, the bout ended in a draw, with the Brazilian retaining his title. Naturally the UFC ran it back, and the second time around, Brandon put on a clinic, stopping Deiveson to become the promotion’s first ever Mexican-born champion.
Since then, the now-former champ has called for a trilogy fight, citing illness as the reason for his diminished performance. However speaking in a recent interview with Jimmy Smith, Brandon said that Deiveson needs to likely win another fight, in order to get the shot.
“Yeah, there’s the trilogy against Figueiredo, but the last fight, I don’t know what you think, but I really believe my performance was very dominant. So he needs another fight maybe, to think about the trilogy,” Moreno said.
What’s Next For Brandon Moreno?
That being said, while we know that Brandon Moreno is not particularly interested in fighting Deiveson Figueiredo, that does leave an unanswered question as to who he does want to fight. To him, the door is open to a variety of challengers.
In particular, he is eyeing the winner of the bout between Askar Askarov and Alex Perez. However he also has former bantamweight champ Cody Garbrandt in mind, as well.
“To be honest, I don’t care. I have a lot of possible opponents. The winner between Askar Askarov and Alex Perez can be the next one, or Cody Garbrandt, he lost his last fight against Rob Font but he’s a former champ and he’s a name. He wants to go to 125, so he can be a possibility too,” Moreno said.
“I have a lot of possibilities. At the end of the day, I’m trying to enjoy two months of vacation because this last training camp was so hard. The whole six months thinking about the fight, thinking about the reamatch, about Figueiredo, the depression, all the stress on my mind. I’m trying to stay with my family right now and enjoy two months because I know the next training camp will be really, really hard again.”
🔊 "The last fight [with Figueiredo], I don't know what you think, but I really believe that my performance was very dominant."
Brandon Moreno (@theassassinbaby) discusses which challenger could be next for his first flyweight title defense with @jimmysmithmma 👊 pic.twitter.com/7xbGhYXrF6
— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) June 25, 2021
Who do you want to see Brandon Moreno fight next? Are you interested in a third fight between he and Deiveson Figueiredo?
