‘The Assassin Baby’ has been at the top of the flyweight division since he returned to the UFC in 2019.
After suffering back-to-back losses, Brandon Moreno took some time away before returning to the Octagon in November last year.
The Mexican star made a statement with Moreno’s dominant performance against Amir Albazi seeing him break records at 125-pounds.
He’s now back to headline in Mexico City this weekend where he will take on former title challenger Steve Erceg.
As he looks to keep this momentum going, Moreno will try to recapture the form that saw him produce some classic fights for the flyweight title.
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Brandon Moreno stopped Kai Kara-France with a sickening body kick
Off the back of his trilogy of title fights with Deiveson Figueiredo, Brandon Moreno had fought to a draw, won the flyweight belt and then lost it in their third encounter.
To bounce back, the former champion was matched with another top contender in the division for UFC 277 where an interim titleholder would be crowned in Dallas, Texas.
Kai Kara-France has earned big wins over Rogerio Bontorin, Cody Garbrandt and Askar Askarov to earn himself his first title opportunity on July 30th.
The pair first met back at UFC 245 in 2019 where in his second fight since returning to the UFC, Moreno secured a unanimous decision win.
Through the first two rounds of their rematch, there wasn’t much to split the two flyweights as the scorecards reflected.
One judge had it tied at 19-19 whilst one scorecard had Moreno winning both rounds with the other having Kara-France two up.
The third round was competitive once again with both men significantly upping their output until ‘The Assassin Baby’ was able to close the show 30 seconds before the championship rounds got underway.
As he followed after his opponent, Moreno unleashed a powerful left body kick that immediately had Kara-France curling up on the ground.
Some follow up strikes forced referee Herb Dean to step in and as the commentary desk noted, Moreno had used that technique throughout the fight but once one of them landed with devastating impact to his opponent’s liver, it was all she wrote.
Brandon Moreno is still right at the top but he’s in a tricky position
Though his win over Kai Kara-France may have taken place three years ago, Brandon Moreno is still one of the best flyweights in the world.
Two split decisions losses may have impacted his public perception but that was quickly undone by his phenomenal performance last time out.
Moreno’s biggest issue is that even if he’s able to beat Steve Erceg in Mexico City, he has multiple losses to the current flyweight champion, Alexandre Pantoja.
It seems unlikely that another win will grant him a shot at Pantoja but in the meantime, he can continue to make his case for being the best 125-pounder in the world that isn’t his former Brazilian foe.