Brandon Moreno believes recent accusations towards his team are stupid.
Moreno is slated to fight Deiveson Figueiredo in a fourth consecutive flyweight title fight as their series currently stands at 1-1-1. However, following Kai Kara-France’s win over Askar Askarov at UFC Columbus this past weekend, Figueiredo recently made a post calling on UFC president Dana White to cancel the Moreno fight.
Instead, he preferred to face Kara-France with the reason being racist comments made by Moreno’s team. To clarify, Moreno’s teammate Marcelo Rojo hosted an Instagram live stream and a screenshot from it showed a monkey head filter on Figueiredo’s body.
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Brandon Moreno: Figueiredo Running Away From Me
While Moreno acknowledges the seriousness of the situation, he also believes the accusations are stupid as Rojo was simply using a number of filters during the stream.
“It’s just stupid,” Moreno said in a recent interview with ESPN Deportes. “He was playing with his phone and he was streaming live on Instagram and he was using many filters. It’s a shame we don’t have the full video because it was a live stream, he didn’t save it. He was using filters on everyone. Dana White, my teammates and he even used a filter on me.
“He was switching filters and then appears a monkey filter on Figueiredo, that’s true and someone took a screenshot. We don’t know who, and (he) starts calling Marcelo Rojo a racist. And you know Marcelo, you’re not going to let me lie: He’s not racist.”
Brandon Moreno reacts to Deiveson Figuereido’s recent post and explains the alleged racism incident from his team: “He’s just running away from the fourth fight. That’s already offered for July. He sees a better opportunity to beat Kara-France”
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As far as Moreno is concerned, a fourth fight is still on and this is Figueiredo’s way of trying to avoid another tough fight with him.
“I’ve already talked to the UFC, with the top guys in the promotion,” Moreno said. “They told me the fourth fight is set. At some point they told me not to worry. That the plan is for me to fight again for the title. So I think at this point Deiveson is running away from me. I’m not lying. UFC wants Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Brandon Moreno 4. I’ve said yes already, but the other part hasn’t.”
With that said, the Mexican understands why Figueiredo doesn’t want the fight as Kara-France represents an easier outing.
Not to mention the fact that it allows Figueiredo to keep the belt and make more money. But if he wants the biggest money fight, he simply has to fight Moreno.
“He needs to understand that he’s still the B-side on this, and that’s not my fault,” Moreno added. “I’m just here to fight and be the best. … Chances for him to lose this fight against me are very high and he sees a better opportunity vs. Kara-France to keep the belt and make some money. But he knows that the only ‘money fight’ for him is with me. Simple facts.”
While many things may be up for debate, there’s no denying that Moreno is still the biggest possible fight for Figueiredo at this point.