For the eighth time in promotional history, the UFC will present a fight card on Saturday from Mexico City. And, for the fifth time since that relationship began, former two-time flyweight champion Brandon Moreno will be featured prominently on the card.
Moreno (23-9-2), a native of Tijuana who now lives and trains out of Las Vegas, became the first Mexican-born champion in UFC history when he captured the promotion’s 125-pound title by submitting Deiveson Figueiredo in 2021, which was their second of four title bouts against one another in the history of their exciting rivalry.
The 32-year-old Moreno will look to return to title contention and bounce back from a December TKO loss to Tatsuro Taira when he headlines UFC Fight Night inside Arena CDMX in the proud nation’s capitol city. Moreno, who will face late replacement Lone’er Kavanagh (9-1) will also be fighting with the plight of his people in mind following days of unrest throughout the country.
On Sunday, the Mexican government declared the capturing and death of powerful cartel leader Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, commonly known as “El Mencho,” which set off a wave of retaliatory violence in major cities.
“I was walking yesterday in the streets and I stopped to watch my cellphone at all the bad news around the country,” Moreno told CBS Sports HQ on Monday. “Right now, in Mexico City, things here are super calm. All of the disaster is more to the north like Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta. Actually, my [home] city has reports of some destruction on the streets in Tijuana, that’s the northwest. Thank life and thank God, my family is fine and the people all around me are fine.
“It has been really hard hours for my Mexican people. It’s weird, man. It’s crazy because, right now, I’m super focused on my fight but, at the same time, I know that a lot of Mexican people are focused on this bad moment. Maybe [the UFC Fight Night event] can be a nice moment for the people to try to forget the bad moment and get some joy.”
The site of Saturday’s card, in central Mexico, is located more than a six-hour drive away from the center of the unrest in the Mexican state of Jalisco, where citizens and tourists have been told to shelter in place. The U.S. State Department declared Tuesday that the majority of areas outside of Jalisco have “returned to normal” and UFC Fight Night will go on as scheduled.
