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Former World Series of Fighting (WSOF) Bantamweight champion, Marlon Moraes, recently revealed that he and his wife had tested positive for COVID-19. While Moraes says he is doing well, his wife had to be admitted to a hospital in Brazil.
And while all of “Magic’s” thoughts and attention is on his family’s health, the scrappy 135-pound contender already has his eyes on his next fight. According to Marlon, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has already offered him a fight against former division champion, Cody Garbrandt, for an event planned for October of this year.
“The fight [the UFC has] to do now is me versus Cody. And I think they will put [Aljamain] Sterling to fight Yan and whoever wins between me and Cody will be the next to fight for the belt,” Moraes said in an interview with ESPN.
“The [UFC] is already planning [Moraes-Garbrandt] for October. The fight has already been offered, on my part it has already been accepted, I’m just waiting for the UFC.”
Moraes hasn’t competed since winning a split-decision win over Jose Aldo at UFC 245. Marlon has won five of his last six inside the Octagon, bringing his record to 5-2 under the UFC banner. And while he failed to win the vacant Bantamweight title against Henry Cejudo at UFC 238, “Magic” is confident a win over Garbrandt will get him back into a championship fight.
“No Love,” meanwhile, recently snapped his three-fight losing streak in impressive fashion, defeating Raphael Assuncao via devastating at UFC 250 just last month (see it again here). Prior to that, Garbrandt had suffered three consecutive knockouts of his own.
After winning the vacant 135-pound strap at UFC 251 by knocking out Jose Aldo, Petr Yan is expected to defend his belt against Aljamain Sterling later this year. While that fight is not official, it seems the 135-pound division is starting to roll along nicely after Henry Cejudo abruptly retired from the sport earlier this year, leaving his belt behind in the process.