Former two-time UFC flyweight champion Brandon Moreno is back in the Octagon on Saturday, February 24 at Arena CDMX in Mexico City, where he faces former title challenge Brandon Royval in a rematch. The latter replaces Amir Albazi, who withdrew from the fight due to an unknown reason.
The pair first met at UFC 255 in November 2020. Moreno came out on top, taking the win against Royval via first-round TKO with punches.
In his previous outing last July, No. 1-ranked flyweight contender Brandon Moreno (21-7-2) dropped a split decision against Alexandre Pantoja and lost the title. Early last year, the 30-year-old native of Tijuana, Mexico defeated Deiveson Figueiredo via third-round TKO (doctor stoppage) in their fourth fight and became a two-time champion.
Brandon Royval (15-7) is also looking to return to winning ways. The 31-year-old challenged Pantoja for the belt last month, but suffered the defeat by unanimous decision. In April 2023, the Denver, Colorado native KO’d Matheus Nicolau in the first round. He is currently No. 3 in the UFC flyweight rankings.
“I just want the opportunity to fight for the title again,” Brandon Moreno said in ESPN’s breaking video. “If the UFC say I have to fight one more time before that – I will.”
“[Our first fight] was in 2020. It was a really fast, quick fight. Royval had this problem in the shoulder, but I really believe I was winning that fight.”
“He was saying a lot of different things [on] social media about our fight in 2020, but at the end – we are going to fight again, and in front of my people and I’m excited for that.”
The co-main event at UFC Mexico City is also a rematch, pitting former interim featherweight champion and No. 2 Yair Rodriguez of Mexico against No. 3 Brian Ortega of the United States.