Watch: UFC harks back to Brandon Moreno’s debut back in 2011


Watch: UFC harks back to Brandon Moreno’s debut back in 2011

Brandon Moreno's first MMA victory

Brandon Moreno is currently one of the biggest names in the UFC. The fighter made headlines when he defeated Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 263 via submission for the UFC flyweight championship. Moreno became the first-ever Mexican-born fighter to win a UFC championship. 

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UFC released a throwback video of Moreno when he first made his professional MMA debut back in 2011. The post was intended to be a 10-year challenge of Moreno from his debut to winning the UFC flyweight title. His fight was against Atiq Jihaid, which he fought under UWC.

The Mexican has had an outstanding professional journey, it all started when joined UWC Mexico, a native MMA promotion. After that in two years, Moreno had 6 wins and 3 losses. 

Moreno’s next step was to compete at the World Fighting Federation where he went undefeated. Eventually, Moreno became the flyweight champion which opened up opportunities for the 25th season of  The Ultimate Fighter. During his first season at TUF, Moreno got the opportunity to debut in the UFC at UFC Fight Night 96 in 2016. He went against Louis Smolka and defeated him via submission in the very first round. The fight also helped him earn his first Performance of the Night bonus award.

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After that, the fighter went on to defeat two more opponents in a row but then experienced his first-ever defeat in the promotion. Moreno lost the fight against Sergio Pettis in his first headlined UFC event. After two consecutive losses, the Mexican was all set to turn the tables as he went on an impressive four-fight win streak in two years. During this time he dominated the flyweight division and defeated opponents like Maikel Pérez, Jussier Formiga, Brandon Royval, etc. 

Brandon Moreno’s Road to flyweight championship 

Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno
Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno

After going through an outstanding undefeated run, Moreno earned himself the opportunity to fight for the flyweight title against Deiveson Figueiredo. The fight took place at UFC 256 in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2020 and was well anticipated by the fans. The title fight ended in a majority draw and Figueiredo suffered a deduction of one point due to repeated groin strikes. 

Due to the shocking end of the first fight, Moreno vs Figueiredo 2 gained even more attention from the fans as people are eager to find out the rightful champion. The fight took place at UFC 263 at Glendale, Arizona in June 2021. Moreno dominated the fight from all aspects his striking and grappling exchanges were impressive and his opponent had no answer to them. In the third round, Brandon Moreno caught Figueiredo with a rear-naked choke and forced him to submit. Brandon Moreno won his first-ever UFC title and made history.

Also Read: “I want to clean the division,” Brandon Moreno reveals his plans post UFC 270 trilogy

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