Brandon Moreno thinks the epic strawweight title fight between Zhang Weili and Joanna Jedrzejczyk is the best fight of 2020.
Moreno put on an equally exciting show when he challenged flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 256 earlier this month. The pair threw down for five rounds at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas before the judges scored the fight a majority draw.
Despite being in the running for the highly coveted Fight of the Year award Moreno told Hablemos MMA that Zhang and Jedrzejczyk earned it at UFC 248 back in March.
“‘Fight of the Year,’ I think Zhang Weili vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk should win – that’s me giving you my personal opinion,” Moreno said in Spanish. “But if they gave us that title, that award, I would be very happy. Why not? But me, as a fan, that fight with Joanna and Weili – I got very excited and I think that should be ‘Fight of the Year.’”
Moreno also hesitated to award himself the best fight in UFC flyweight history. Despite his humility ‘The Baby Assassin’ did note his fight with Figueiredo had a lot to offer.
“I think that on a drama level and standpoint, yes,” Moreno said. “We can’t discount the technique aspect when Demetrious (Johnson) was fighting. But from a damage and drama standpoint, I’d say yeah, I think it definitely is up there.”
“I did expect a hard fight,” Moreno added. “It was very clear to me that Deiveson, with all the hype that he’s got surrounding his striking and power and all that, he liked to make this aura for his opponents that you couldn’t exchange with him and that you had to respect him at all times.
“So if you look at it from that standpoint, the strategy that I had was crazy – maybe not the smartest thing to do. But I knew that if I took him out of his comfort zone that I was going to get to him and make him uncomfortable, and that’s how it went down.
“So you do expect a hard fight, but the bell rang and Dana White was in awe, everyone was hyped, and that’s great. Although I didn’t take the belt and it ended in a majority draw, it makes me very happy that people loved the fight.” (Translated & Transcribed by MMA Junkie)
Do you agree with Brandon Moreno? Is Zhang Weili and Joanna Jedrzejczyk the best fight of 2020?