Brandon Moreno Wasn’t Happy About Being Passed Over For Title Shot

Alex Perez, and not Brandon Moreno, is going to challenge the new flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 255. Recently ‘The Baby Assassin’ admitted he had some trouble dealing with that news, when he found out.

Moreno was “mad” upon hearing he’d been passed over

Originally, Figueiredo was scheduled to fight Cody Garbrandt at the November 21st card, and Moreno was supposed to fight Perez that same night.

But, when the former bantamweight champ Garbrandt incurred a bicep injury, the UFC announced that Perez would challenge Figueiredo instead. Moreno was tapped to fight Brandon Royval.

Well, Moreno recently spoke with MMA Junkie, and according to him, the UFC had said that if Garbrandt was forced out of the title fight, he’d be the front runner as a replacement. So, that was one of the reasons Moreno had this to say about development.

“Even right now, I don’t know what happened in that moment,” Moreno said. “When I knew about that, I was very disappointed, sad even, mad, angry, but I can’t explain what happened.

For me, I’m just trying to stay really focused on my goals.

“I know Alex Perez is more of a name than Brandon Royval. Brandon Royval is very good.

He has two fights in the UFC, very impressive fights, but I’m just trying to be focused on Brandon. He’s amazing. He’s a really good jiu-jitsu guy, and he has hands, but I don’t know what happened with the UFC.

It’s really weird because actually the UFC told me. They said, ‘If something happened, you’re next for the title,’ but I don’t know what happened.”

The 26-year-old Moreno also said this.

“Actually, the UFC gave me an explanation, I’m trying to still be loyal with the UFC, but their explanation doesn’t have any sense for me, and I don’t know,” Moreno said. “Alex Perez is a huge fighter, but all his record is against non-ranked guys.

Just his two fights against Benavidez and Formiga. He beat Formiga, but Benavidez killed Alex Perez – and me, even my losses were against top 10 fighters.

Alexandre Pantoja, Sergio Pettis, but all my wins, all my career in the UFC is against top 10 fighters.”

Thoughts?

So, it’s hard to say for sure, what the rationale was for the decision to go with Perez. Moreno is ranked #2 in the flyweight division while Perez is #4.

It could be on account of the fact Perez has finished his last two fights, while Moreno is coming off three straight decisions.

At the end of the, both of those match-ups, should be on anyone’s must see list.