Fights on Tap: Brandon Moreno vs. Alexandre Pantoja II, six other UFC bouts announced 

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 

Kristen King

Kristen King is a writer for Bloody Elbow. She has covered combat sports since 2016, getting her start with outlets such as FanSided, MyMMANews and MMA-Prospects. She joined the BE team in 2020, covering a mix of news, events and injuries. In her time with BE, Kristen has created ‘Fright of the Night,’ a series that highlights some of the worst injuries in the sport.

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