“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and other times you tie.”
Brandon Moreno put on one heck of a show opposite UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo at Saturday’s UFC 256. ‘The Assassin Baby’ battled ‘The God of War’ for five rounds resulting in a majority draw decision from the judges.
The draw saw Figueiredo retain his title, with pundits lauding the bout as a strong candidate for 2020’s Fight of the Year. For Moreno, he remains undefeated in his past six contests (4-0-2) and is likely to be given an immediate rematch and shot at the title.
Over the weekend the 27-year-old took to Instagram to share his thoughts on the result and what’s to come.
“Everyone saw what happened yesterday friends, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and other times you tie. In essence, yesterday’s fight is why I dedicate myself to this, I hope you enjoyed it, I feel immense thanks to all of you for the unconditional support and I can’t wait for 2021”
Moreno’s route to UFC 256 was an unusual one. After clinching a flyweight title on the regional scene, Moreno was recruited for The Ultimate Fighter: Tournament of Champions. He was seeded 16th out of 16 fighters and was then eliminated by Alexandre Pantoja in the opening round.
Despite his early elimination Moreno started his pro UFC career with three straight wins over Louis Smolka, Ryan Benoit and Dustin Ortiz. He then dropped back-to-back decisions to Sergio Pettis and his old TUF foe Pantoja.
With the UFC flyweight division looking on the verge of being shuttered Moreno was cut from the promotion. Moreno then signed a multi-fight deal with LFA, but only got one fight under his belt there (a TKO win) before being re-signed by the UFC.
In his second UFC stint, after a draw versus Askar Askarov he reeled off wins over Kai Kara-France, Jussier Formiga and Brandon Royval to set up his date with Figueiredo.