Brandon Moreno had early worries about what his mental state would be like as a UFC champion, but little has changed ahead of his first title defense against a familiar opponent.
Moreno will face Devieson Figueiredo for the third time with the flyweight title on the line on Saturday in the co-main event of UFC 270, which takes place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
After fighting to a draw in their first meeting at UFC 256, Moreno left no doubt in the rematch at UFC 263 when he pulled off the performance of his career with a third-round submission of Figueiredo to become the UFC’s world champion for the very first time. This is a moment Moreno will never forget.
” I was thinking about it, and everything is exactly the same,” Moreno said to MMA Fighting. “I have a fight, somebody’s trying to kill me, and I need to defend my title. That’s it. That’s the only difference — I’m defending something. But it’s the same thing. It’s the same thing. I am going to the octagon alongside a guy trying to beat my skills and who wants to eat food from my family.
“I’ve been trying to be very, very focused, but just be the champion for the cameras, for the media and all of that stuff. For me, Brandon Moreno is my goal. I just want to be Brandon Moreno and be Brandon Moreno every day .
Moreno was coronated by UFC. It began with a defeat to Alexandre Pantoja, which resulted in the promotion releasing him. Then, he won the LFA flyweight title 13 and returned to UFC to fight Askar Askarov. He then won the title fight.
The No. 1 ranked flyweight in MMA Fighting’s Global Rankings knew there would be some changes in his life being the man at 125 pounds, but he made it a focus to make sure his head didn’t get too big.
” The first month was like “Whoa! It’s Brandon Moreno,” the Mexican champion. After that, there were interviews and media tours. Moreno stated, “People [were treating me] treated me like kings, very kind.” It was a vacation in Puerto Vallarta, and I remember that I visited a restaurant packed with people. But the owner gave me a place at the table and it was incredible. I need to be honest.
“But after the first two months, the fever started to [drop]. It started to [drop] after the first two months. For me, it’s all about enjoying every moment of my life.
“And I was scared about that because we’ve seen a lot of champions lose their minds, lose their first title defense, start to lose, and there are a lot of examples. I was scared to be that guy. That was why I decided not to become that man.
Figueiredo headed back to the drawing board after having his six-fight unbeaten streak snapped by Moreno and made the choice to change things up. The No. 2 ranked fighter in MMA Fighting’s Global Rankings moved his camp to Fight Ready in Arizona to work with the likes of Henry Cejudo, Eddie Cha, Eric Albarracin, and more ahead of his chance to regain his title.
For the “Assassin Baby”, he can understand Figueiredo’s desire to add new elements to his arsenal but it doesn’t affect his preparation.
” You can clearly see the holes in both his and mine when you watch the [second] battle,” Moreno said. “Even with the way I won last June, my preparation was about keeping everything sharp — my strength and conditioning, my cardio, everything.
“I didn’t put too much attention on [adding new elements to my game], because right now, maybe that’s the only advantage he has over me, is that he’s bigger, maybe stronger than me. But right now, I’ve got all of that covered.”
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