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Brandon Moreno vs. Alexandre Pantoja II set
Fights on Tap is a weekly roundup of all the fights booked in the UFC, Bellator and other promotions.
The UFC either announced or finalized six fights this week, and reigning flyweight champion Brandon Moreno has his next defense set.
Following a four-fight series against Deiveson Figueiredo, the ‘Assassin Baby’ officially ended their rivalry at UFC 283 this past June. There, Moreno defeated ‘Deus Da Guerra’ via third-round TKO to unify the flyweight titles. For his first defense, Moreno has yet another former foe in front of him: Alexandre Pantoja.
Moreno and Pantoja have fought twice, though only one counts as an official fight (the first happened during a season of The Ultimate Fighter). The ‘Cannibal’ earned a unanimous decision against Moreno at UFC Fight Night: Maia vs. Usman nearly five years ago. Since then, Pantoja has gone 6-2 in his next eight UFC appearances. And after three straight wins — two of which were ‘Performance of the Night’ awarded finishes of Brandon Royval and Alex Perez — the Brazilian earned his first UFC championship opportunity.
Moreno vs. Pantoja II goes down at UFC 290, the upcoming pay-per-view event scheduled for July 8 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Announced UFC fights:
UFC 288 — May 6
Phil Hawes vs. Ikram Aliskerov — middleweight (First rep. by ESPN Fight Center, H/T Tom Feely of Sherdog)
Zhalgas Zhumagulov vs. Rafael Estevam — flyweight (First rep. by Nolan King and Farah Hannoun of MMA Junkie)
Parker Porter vs. Braxton Smith — heavyweight (First rep. by Nolan King of MMA Junkie)
Movsar Evloev vs. Bryce Mitchell — featherweight
UFC Charlotte — May 13
Karl Williams vs. Chase Sherman — heavyweight (Williams vs. Sherman was already finalized, but shifted from UFC 287 to UFC Charlotte, per Williams on Instagram)
UFC 290 — July 8
Brandon Moreno vs. Alexandre Pantoja — flyweight (First rep. by Freak.MMA on Instagram)
Announced Bellator fights:
Bellator 295 — April 22
Aaron Pico vs. James Gonzalez — featherweight (First rep. by Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting)
Bellator 297 — June 16
Gadzi Rabadanov vs. Pieter Buist — lightweight (First rep. by BellatorZone)
Daniel James vs. Gokhan Saricam — heavyweight
Roman Faraldo vs. Bobby Nash — welterweight
Jaleel Willis vs. Ramazan Kuramagomedov — welterweight
Archie Colgan vs. Emmanuel Sanchez — lightweight
Norbert Novenyi Jr. vs. Kamil Oniszczuk — middleweight
Timur Khizriev vs. Richie Smullen — featherweight
Announced Cage Warriors fights:
Cage Warriors 154 — May 6
Simone Patrizi vs. Ermil Xhaferi — lightweight
Cage Warriors 155 — June 2
Milad Ahady vs. Alex Trinidad — featherweight
Frans Lincoln Sormin vs. James Settle — bantamweight
Announced KSW fights:
KSW 82 — May 13
Brian Hooi vs. Andrzej Grzebyk — welterweight
Bogdan Gnidko vs. Rafał Kijańczuk — light heavyweight