Brandon Moreno's life has changed for the better since winning the UFC Flyweight Title from Deiveson Figueiredo, and he is hoping it stays that way following UFC 270.
A trilogy fight will take place on January 22, with Moreno looking to go 2-0-1 against Figueiredo. Moreno, who has become a beloved figure in the world of MMA, doesn't like the idea of drama in his life. When it comes to fighting Figueiredo, however, he believes drama follows the latter.
The reason? While he didn't directly say it, Moreno may have been referring to Wallid Ismail, Figueiredo's manager.
"Sometimes, I think this guy (Figueiredo) doesn’t believe in his words," Moreno told MMA Fighting. "When he talks, it’s like everything is talk about lies and the fake people around him. It is what it is. I’m tired of that, but a fight is a fight, and I’m ready to fight him again.
“When I say fake people, the first name people say is Wallid. I don’t know. You said it, not me.”
Moreno made his MMA debut in 2011. A World Fighting Federation Flyweight Champion, Moreno made his UFC debut in 2016. He went 3-2 with the promotion before being cut in 2018. Moreno would recover by winning the LFA Flyweight Title in 2019. Returning to the promotion, Moreno won three in a row, impressing UFC brass enough to face Figueiredo at UFC 256 for the flyweight title. The fight ended via a draw, with repeated groin strikes by the latter altering the scores.
Moreno would submit Figueiredo at UFC 263 in June to win the title. Now a third fight is on the way. With Henry Cejudo helping Figueiredo. Moreno doesn't seem to mind and believes Figueiredo needs all the help he can get in order to improve. He also sees a plus in fighting Figueiredo more than once.
"Now, I don’t care if Henry Cejudo wants to help Figueiredo for this trilogy," Moreno went on to say. "I think he needs it, because he needs to do something different because last fight was horrible for him... Figueiredo is my best sponsor ever. I never had another sponsor like Figueiredo. He’s paying my house, he’s paying my car, so we can do it again.”
Taking place inside the Honda Center in Anaheim, the main event of UFC 270 will be Francis Ngannou defending the UFC Heavyweight Title against Ciryl Gane.
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