UFC Mexico City: Moreno vs Royval 2 - Feb 24 🇲🇽

[wandshogun09]

Mexico City. Rematch City….

ESPN MAIN CARD
Brandon Moreno vs Brandon Royval 

Yair Rodriguez vs Brian Ortega 

Daniel Zellhuber vs Francisco Prado 

Yazmin Jauregui vs Sam Hughes 

Manuel Torres vs Chris Duncan 

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Cristian Quinonez vs Raoni Barcelos

Jesus Aguilar vs Mateus Mendonca 

Edgar Chairez vs Daniel Lacerda 

Claudio Puelles vs Fares Ziam 

Ronaldo Rodriguez vs Denys Bondar 

Victor Altamirano vs Felipe Dos Santos 

Muhammad Naimov vs Erik Silva 

 

Actually seen some complaining about this but, for a Fight Night, I think this is a cracking card myself. The main and co-main should both be belters, especially in front of a rabid Mexican crowd. And there’s enough further down the card to hold my interest. I’m all for calling a shite card shite, but if moaning about crap cards is your thing, we get plenty of opportunities to do that. This isn’t one of them.

 

Brandon Moreno vs Brandon Royval 2 headlines. The rematch. The Battle Of The Brandons. Yeah another rematch in the Flyweight division. As much as I’m a fan of most of the talent at 125, no weight class on the UFC roster screams Groundhog Day like the Flyweights. I thought when Figgy decided to finally move up to Bantamweight that it might freshen things up a bit but here we are. And the best of it is, where does the winner of this fight go? Are we looking at Moreno vs Pantoja 4? Royval vs Pantoja 3? In fairness, the matchmakers did try to inject some new blood into the mix. This was originally supposed to be Moreno vs Amir Albazi but Albazi withdrew. On a positive note though, if you don’t get bogged down in what’s next after this and just live in the moment, this is a banger on paper.

The first meeting went down at UFC 255 in November 2020. Royval had came into the fight with some real momentum. He’d won the LFA belt just before the UFC signed him, then submitted Tim Elliott and Kai Kara-France in back-to-back FOTN winning performances. He was on fire. And Moreno already had a rep as an exciting fighter himself. So it sounded like a barnburner going in. And they delivered…for just under a round anyway. Memory’s a tad hazy but my main recollection of it is that they were well on their way to having a late FOTY contender, or at least the FOTN, then somewhere along the line, Royval suffered a shoulder injury and Moreno got the TKO at 4:59 of the first round. One second to go in the round! Although, with the injury, even if he wasn’t finished no doubt the fight would’ve been stopped between rounds anyway. Cracking fight while it lasted from what I remember but an unfortunate ending. It was one of those fights where, from the second it ended, I was hoping we’d get a rematch one day. That day has arrived. Back in 2020 though, Moreno was onto bigger things.

In the aftermath of that Royval win, Moreno found himself locked into a 4 fight series with Deiveson Figueiredo where they battled back and forth over the Flyweight strap. First fight was a classic, the best fight in the division’s history for me, and ended in a draw. To the surprise of most, Moreno then pissed through and submitted Figgy in the rematch 6 months later to finally realise his dream of becoming UFC champion. Figgy reclaimed the belt with a points win in January 2022. Then Moreno took a little detour from the rivalry, beat KKF, then won the title back from Figgy via doctor stoppage on the Brazil PPV in January last year. It was a funny old series really. In that, after 4 fights, I’m still not 100% sure who the better man is. I often felt like Figgy was the better fighter and that his ‘off’ performances had to be partly down to him struggling to make 125lbs. He seemed really hit and miss with the weight cut in his last couple of years at Flyweight and his performances often seemed to depend heavily on how his cut went. But that’s not Moreno’s fault. And to be honest, it’s hard not to look back at that rivalry and conclude that Moreno won it. Scoreline-wise it went down as 2-1-1 in his favour and, bad weight cut or not, Figgy looked like he couldn’t keep up with Moreno in that 4th fight. It felt like by that point, Moreno had his style sussed out. The swollen eye and doctor stoppage was anti-climactic but I felt like a Moreno win was a formality by that point regardless. Over the course of their rivalry, looking back I think Moreno just outlasted him.

At UFC 290 in July, Moreno defended the title against another old nemesis in Alexandre Pantoja. They wound up having what I considered the 2023 FOTY. Just an incredible, close 5 round battle. But once again, Pantoja just seems to have Moreno’s number. Moreno’s definitely closed the gap. He’s getting closer. But at 0-2 now to Pantoja (0-3 if you include TUF), you’ve got to think Moreno’s not gonna get more than maybe one more chance at Pantoja. I think if he wins this fight though, and especially if it’s decisive, we’ll be seeing it again before the year’s out.

Royval’s done alright himself, although he obviously hasn’t reached the heights Moreno has. He’s gone 3-2 since that first Moreno fight, which doesn’t sound good at all until you realise the 2 losses were both to current champ Alexandre Pantoja. No shame there. Royval was riding a 3 fight win streak going into his last fight. Won a decision over Rogerio Bontorin and then stopped Matt Schnell and Matheus Nicolau, both in the first round. He bagged himself a title shot in December but lost the rematch against Pantoja via lopsided decision. I’d say he’s in a bit of a different position to Moreno. They’ve both just lost their last fights against Pantoja but Moreno lost a razor close FOTY epic whereas Royval got schooled and the loss is so recent.

Should be a hell of a fight. They both come to scrap and I can probably count on one hand the times I’ve seen either of them in anything resembling a dull fight. Then add in that there’s kind of unfinished business there, then add in that the stakes are higher now they’re both ranked in the Top 5, then factor in that the Mexican crowd is gonna be electric for this. It should be a lot of fun. And whether anyone likes it or not, chances are this will end up being a number one contender fight. Like I said, moreso if Moreno wins but even if Royval comes out on top, it wouldn’t really shock me if he’s back in the hunt then just because who else would be in the running at that point? He’s already ranked #3, Moreno’s ranked #1. Then you’ve got Albazi on the sidelines and the likes of Manel Kape missing weight and being unable to get his shit together. If Royval goes out there and beats Moreno, in Mexico, I don’t know, he might just get another shot. I think he’d have to do a little more than Moreno to earn it though. Like if he wins and it’s a FOTY type thing, or he knocks Moreno out cold or something, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if he got another crack at the gold. All that is down the road though. Purely as a stand-alone fight, this is ace. The Albazi one would’ve made more sense and stuff but this is probably gonna be the more exciting fight to actually watch. I’m not mad at it.

 

Yair Rodriguez vs Brian Ortega 2 is a quality co-main event, isn’t it? Way better than most Fight Night headliners we get these days. It’s 5 rounds as well, which I’m all for. Honestly never really thought we’d ever see this rematch. They were quite pally going into their first fight to the point I’m sure they were both saying they weren’t really happy they were matched up. I remember being buzzing when the fight was announced but hearing them talk like that kind of hurt the anticipation for me. Hard to fully get up for a fight when the fighters themselves aren’t.

The fight went down in July 2022 as the main event of a Fight Night in New York. Yair was coming off that barmy classic against Max Holloway. Ortega was coming off his title shot against Alexander Volkanovski, where he ultimately lost but did have Volk in real bother with a deep mounted guillotine choke at one point. They’d been mixing at the highest level of the Featherweight division and it felt like their stock was still high. So despite their reluctance to fight each other, by the time fight night arrived I was all in. Then before the first round was even over…

I was just getting settled in for a potential FOTY contender and, from my memory of the fight, the early signs were good. They were going after it. Then Yair went for the armbar from bottom, Ortega was trying to defend and work out of it, then the fight was over. It was that sudden. It wasn’t some freak injury like Tom Aspinall blowing his knee out seconds into a fight. It definitely seemed like Ortega must’ve suffered the injury during the exchange on the ground but Yair was attacking from the bottom and whatever defensive movements Ortega was making, it was forced by Yair’s offence on the bottom. So while it wasn’t a straightforward submission, it had to be treated as a legitimate win for Yair. He did his job. But man, what a letdown and anti-climax. To add to the disappointment, I think Yair said post-fight that the only way they’d fight again would be if it was for the title. So, knowing these two were unlikely to ever beat Volk or Max, I thought that was that. At that point Yair vs Ortega seemed like it was a one time deal, it ended prematurely, and we’d never get a satisfying conclusion.

The rematch is on! Don’t know what changed but I’m glad it did. Guess it’s just a case of circumstances. Yair’s fought twice since the first Ortega fight. He breezed through Josh Emmett last February to become interim champ but then got completely outclassed and stopped by Volkanovski in the proper title fight in July. As for Ortega, nothing. The last time we saw him was that first Yair fight. Him sat in the Octagon, dejected, with his arm just dangling was the last time we saw him in there. So he’s spent nearly 18 months on the shelf. He’s shown before he can come back from long layoffs and look good. After that horrific beating he received from Holloway in 2018, he was out almost 2 years and then came back and looked arguably better than ever in his win over the Korean Zombie. Sometimes a break is a good thing. But too many sabbaticals can be a detriment. And Ortega’s had a couple of them now. He turns 33 a few days before this fight. Far from old but definitely not young for a lighter weight class fighter either. Whatever. I just hope this fight delivers like I expected the first one to. Given their styles, there’s definitely a great fight to be had with these two if they both come in up for it and firing on all cylinders.

 

Daniel Zellhuber vs Francisco Prado didn’t jump out to me at first but it could be good actually. Zellhuber’s Mexican so will obviously be the crowd favourite here. He’s 24 years old and 14-1 with 10 finishes. He beat Lucas Almeida on DWCS in 2021, lost his UFC debut against Trey Ogden but has since bounced back with a points win over Lando Vannata and a submission win over Christos Giagos. Him losing to a guy the level of Ogden doesn’t exactly fill me with optimism but it’s his only loss, he’s still young and I remember him looking pretty slick in those Lando and Giagos fights. Prado’s Argentinian, only 21 years old and has a record of 12-1 with all 12 wins being finishes. Like Zellhuber, his only loss came in his UFC debut against Jamie Mullarkey. He came back in style in July with a first round TKO over Ottman Azaitar. So yeah, these guys could still go on to be legitimate prospects. Both young, both have one loss that could be partly chalked up to the old ‘Octagon debut jitters’ and both have responded positively.

 

Yazmin Jauregui vs Sam Hughes is a fight I’ll be watching with interest and it’s got nothing to do with Hughes. Really looking forward to seeing how Jauregui rebounds here. She came into the UFC in 2022 undefeated but as a complete unknown to me. She instantly made a fan of me with her fantastic debut fight against Iasmin Lucindo. Seriously, if you never watched that fight, get on it. Both were making their UFC debuts and I had zero expectations going in but they had an absolute belter. Jauregui then followed that with a TKO win over Istela Nunes in another exciting fight where Jauregui got dropped early then came back with the finish herself. Unfortunately in July, the first loss came in devastating fashion when Denise Gomes bulldozed her in 20 seconds.

😞 Just a brutal way to suffer your first loss. Really hoping she can get back to winning ways here because she’s such a fun fighter to watch and exactly the kind of fresh face the Strawweight title mix could do with. But I’m not sure. Even in her wins, she always seemed to be there to be hit more than you’d like. It’s partly what makes her exciting to watch. But it does give me doubts on where her ceiling is. She’s still young enough to go on a strong run if she can make some adjustments. She turns 25 just days after this card. But I don’t know. I know one thing though, this fight will tell us a lot because, if you’re ever gonna be a serious contender, you can’t afford to be losing to someone like Hughes. She’s 31 years old and has an 8-5 record. She’s coming off a points win over Jaqueline Amorim but has already lost to a few fighters who I’d rate below Jauregui. She needs to be winning this and I expect she will. But like always, you just never know how a fighter is gonna respond to that first loss.

 

Manuel Torres vs Chris Duncan is OK. Can’t say I’m counting the days or anything but I get why it’s on the main card with Torres being Mexican. Plus he’s coming off an incredible knockout win in his last fight…

Just wrecked poor Nikolas Motta with a vicious standing elbow in the first round. I was really unfamiliar with Torres before that but that KO did the job on me. Love a standing elbow. Looking at Torres’ record, he might be one to keep an eye on in general actually. He’s 14-2 now with 13 finishes. He’s ended his last few fights in a round as well. Duncan’s Scottish and 11-1 with 8 finishes. Hasn’t blown anyone away so far and his UFC debut over Omar Morales was a bit lacklustre. He looked better in his points win over Yanal Ashmouz last time out though.

 

Cristian Quinonez vs Raoni Barcelos is decent enough, I suppose. Two guys who are never getting a sniff of the title picture. Doubt either ever get in the rankings in a division like Bantamweight. But it’s fine for prelim fodder. Quinonez is 27 years old with a record of 18-4 and 13 finishes. He got a quick TKO over Khalid Taha in his UFC debut but got done in a round himself by Kyung Ho Kang in his last fight. Barcelos has fallen on hard times though. He was never a world beater but there was a period a few years back when he looked like a bit of a handful. He’s 36 now though, which is long in the tooth for Bantamweight, and he definitely appears to be winding down. He’s gone 1-4 in his last 5, hasn’t looked terrible in some of those losses but he’s coming up on the losing end enough now to the point they’ve started to just feed him to the up and comers like Umar Nurmagomedov and Kyler Phillips in his last couple of fights. This is certainly more winnable for him. If he loses this one then I don’t know where he goes from there.

 

Jesus Aguilar vs Mateus Mendonca has my attention. Mexico vs Brazil. Aguilar’s 27 years old with a 9-2 record and 7 inside the distance. He made his UFC in February last year and got subbed in a round by Tatsuro Taira. Not ideal obviously but Taira’s looking the business and that loss mightn’t age too badly over time. Aguilar couldn’t have bounced back any better than he did though.

UFC 290 in July. 17 seconds. One punch killshot. Poor Shannon Ross got absolutely bloody flattened! On a card as amazing as 290, that was the first crazy moment of the night. What a shot. Mendonca I’m a bit more fuzzy on. He’s 25 years old and 10-2 with 7 finishes. He scored a 48 second knockout on DWCS to get in the door but has gone winless so far in the UFC, losing to Javid Basharat and Nate Maness.

 

Edgar Chairez vs Daniel Lacerda 2 then. Third rematch on this card! They fought in mid September, on the Grasso vs Shevchenko 2 undercard. It was a fight I had quite high hopes for going in based on Chairez’s valiant losing effort against Japanese prospect Tatsuro Taira in July, and Lacerda being regularly exciting to watch despite being on a losing streak. On paper, it just looked like one of those matchups that might end up stealing the show. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite pan out that way.

About 3 minutes into the fight, Chairez locked on a tight guillotine choke and referee Chris Tognoni stopped the fight. There’s been conflicting opinions on the stoppage and I can kind of see both sides. I know @Egg Shen was cool with the stoppage. I wasn’t outraged myself either. I don’t think Lacerda was getting out of that choke and his arm went limp for a second so you kind of open yourself up to the ref jumping in at that point. But at the same time, he did step in very quickly. The nanosecond Lacerda’s arm dropped, he was on it like a shot. I didn’t think it was an awful stoppage but it did feel like the controversy could’ve been avoided if Tognoni had just given it a few more seconds to play out to its natural conclusion. The fight was ruled a No Contest and Tognoni actually apologised to Lacerda. Which, whether you agreed with the stoppage or not, it’s unusual and actually quite refreshing to see a referee take accountability publicly like that. The rematch was booked immediately for October but fell apart and got pushed back to this card. To be honest, I like Lacerda but he should probably thank his lucky stars it ended how it did. He was on his way to another L and that would’ve been 0-5 for him, he’d likely have got his walking papers. Right or wrong, the ‘controversy’ got him one more shot. It’s Chairez I felt sorry for. He looked good, was almost certainly just seconds away from legitimately finishing the choke and he got robbed of his moment. Hopefully this time the fight goes off without a hitch.

 

Claudio Puelles vs Fares Ziam I’m neither here nor there on really. Rarely have I gone completely cold on an up and coming fighter as I did on Puelles. If you remember, he’s ’the kneebar guy’. Subbed a few opponents with it, including Clay Guida, then was matched up with Dan Hooker on the MSG card in late 2022. I remember actually thinking he might be a problem for Hooker, partly based on his submission skills and partly based on Hooker being in a slump at the time. Hooker ended up battering him though. It quickly became apparent that kneebars were pretty much all Puelles had.

I do like a specialist. We don’t see as many of them as we used to. With some exceptions, MMA has evolved enough to where most fighters are at least competent in all disciplines even if they have one major strength. But these days, at the highest level, being a one trick pony just isn’t gonna cut it. Don’t know if it was an off night or what but Puelles looked completely out of ideas once his attempts to grapple went nowhere. Not a good sign. And now he’s been inactive for over a year. Ziam’s not a contender but he’s no pushover either. Especially as a return fight after a long layoff. He’s 14-4 and coming off a couple of wins over Michal Figlak and Jai Herbert.

 

Ronaldo Rodriguez vs Denys Bondar. No opinion on this. Never seen Rodriguez, not arsed about Bondar. But I’ll go through the motions. Rodriguez makes his Octagon debut here. He’s 24 years old and 16-2 with 14 finishes. He’s been fighting for a promotion called LUX Fight League and won his last fight by doctor stoppage in May. Bondar’s Ukrainian, 31 years old and 14-4 with all his wins being finishes. He’s only fought twice in the 2 years he’s been on the UFC roster and he’s lost both. Suffered an arm injury in his debut against Malcolm Gordon in February 2022. Then never fought until June last year, and got his head mashed in by the elbows of Carlos Hernandez in a horrible late stoppage.

 

Victor Altamirano vs Felipe Dos Santos. Not familiar enough with either to go too in depth on this but could be decent. Altamirano is 33 and has a 12-3 record. He holds UFC wins over Daniel Lacerda and Vinicius Salvador but dropped a decision to Tim Elliott in his last fight in June. Dos Santos is why I’ll be checking this fight out though. He’s 23 years old with a record of 7-1-0-1 and 5 finishes. He’s a teammate of Charles Oliveira and was originally slated to appear on DWCS last year but got the call to step in against Manel Kape on short notice at UFC 293 in September. He ended up losing a decision but certainly didn’t disgrace himself. They got FOTN and, taking the short notice into consideration, I thought Dos Santos gave a really good account of himself. Looking forward to seeing him back with a full training camp.

 

Muhammad Naimov vs Erik Silva is a solid curtain jerker. Tajikistan’s Naimov is 29 years old, 10-2 and on a 5 fight winning streak. Made his UFC debut last June and knocked out Jamie Mullarkey. He followed that with a decision win over Nathaniel Wood at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi in October. Not a bad start at all. Although I feel like I’ve gotta mention Naimov’s repeated groin strikes and fence/glove grabbing in the Wood fight. He looks strong physically and he clearly has some skills. But those constant fouls definitely affected the flow of that fight for me. Hopefully no more of that here. Barely remember Silva so relying on Sherdog here. He’s Venezuelan, 36 years old and 9-2 with 7 finishes. Got a first round TKO on DWCS, lost a decision to TJ Brown in his UFC debut in December 2022, then missed all of 2023. Fuck knows?

 

Viva Mehico 🇲🇽 

Edited February 26 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

Definitely no complaints from me, a bunch of Mexicans fighting in front of a Mexican audience, its gonna be electric.

[Carbomb]

Is Felipe dos Santos a real guy, or is it just Daniel Lacerda trying to sneak himself into a second match by sending the matchmakers a slightly distorted  photo?

[wandshogun09]

19 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Is Felipe dos Santos a real guy, or is it just Daniel Lacerda trying to sneak himself into a second match by sending the matchmakers a slightly distorted  photo?

He’s trying to get that first UFC win by any means necessary. 

[Egg Shen]

Yep, definitely had no issue and still have no issue with stoppage during Chairez/Lacerda @wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

Rey Rey gets everywhere. 

[Bruce85]

5 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

Definitely no complaints from me, a bunch of Mexicans fighting in front of a Mexican audience, its gonna be electric.

Exactly this! The crowd is going to be white hot and should make for a great night. The fights are decent too, both might be rematches but like Wand said in his post they were great fights whilst they lasted so this should be electric. 

[wandshogun09]

Not much talk about this card but it’s 2 days away now and I think it’s a really fun one on paper. Bunch of fighters I like watching, in front of a hot Mexican crowd.

Didn’t even realise until I saw something on Twitter earlier but there’s no fights above 155 on this card either, which is no bad thing at all! Proper WEC vibes. 

[Bruce85]

4 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Not much talk about this card but it’s 2 days away now and I think it’s a really fun one on paper. Bunch of fighters I like watching, in front of a hot Mexican crowd.

Didn’t even realise until I saw something on Twitter earlier but there’s no fights above 155 on this card either, which is no bad thing at all! Proper WEC vibes. 

Didn’t realise this was so soon, should be a really fun card. 
 

Do you think they have booked lighter weight classes due to the altitude of Mexico City? Seen some of the big guys gas drastically at altitude! 

[wandshogun09]

43 minutes ago, Bruce85 said:

Do you think they have booked lighter weight classes due to the altitude of Mexico City? Seen some of the big guys gas drastically at altitude! 

Maybe. I never thought of that but it would make sense. Maybe they’ve finally learned their lesson on that.

First face-offs for the main and co-main events…

[wandshogun09]

Gonna do my usual rewatch of the 2 rematches headlining this card, seeing as I’ve got the house to myself for a few hours. They’re both only short fights anyway but wanted to refresh my memory.

Moreno and Royval first crossed paths back in November 2020 at UFC 255. This was right at the height of the COVID madness so even the PPVs were held at the Apex back then. The horror! Although nobody was moaning at the time. It was either the Apex or nothing at that time, no such thing as crowds. Moreno was coming in off decision wins over Kai Kara-France and Jussier Formiga. Royval had submitted Tim Elliott and Kara-France in his first 2 Octagon appearances.

These 2 were just on the prelims on this card. Sounds weird now and, honestly, it was an odd choice at the time. I vaguely remembered complaining about it myself on here and saying these guys should’ve been on the PPV. Looking at the card now, fucking Chookagian vs Calvillo got on the main card over this! I kind of get it though. Moreno and Royval wouldn’t have been getting PPV points anyway so being on the main card wouldn’t have made a difference to their paycheque. And being on the prelims just meant they’d reach a wider audience. More visibility for them plus from the UFC’s POV, it’s a potential banger right before the main card which could possibly hook some of those last minute PPV purchases. Whereas putting Chook vs Calvillo in that spot would’ve probably had the opposite effect. Anyway…

Brandon Moreno vs Brandon Royval

UFC 255: Figueiredo vs Perez

November 21st 2020

Las Vegas, Nevada 

Usual PPV commentary squad of Anik, Rogan and Cormier. Marc Goddard is on reffing duties.

Round 1: They waste zero time getting going here. Royval looks the much longer and lankier of the two and he’s kicking a lot right off the bat. Mostly to the legs but some to the body and he sneaks the odd knee in occasionally as well. Royval’s looking like a bit of a problem here early so Moreno slows his roll with a takedown less than a minute into the fight. Royval’s moving constantly pretty much from the nanosecond his back hits the mat though and manages to escape back to his feet without taking any damage. Moreno with a stiff jab puts Royval back on his heels for a second but it doesn’t deter him at all. He’s looking really good here. He’s landing more strikes and he’s avoiding most of Moreno’s counters. Royval starts getting a bit wild. He tries a knee up the middle followed immediately by a spinning elbow which, if they would’ve both landed would’ve been one of the all time great KOs. He hit air though. He tries to spin again and Moreno‘s not having any of it…

Moreno’s only got one hook in and Royval’s defending the choke attempt well. There’s a potential Twister there and Rogan’s almost willing him to go for it but Moreno opts to just work for the RNC instead.

He’s going for a kind of a Twister alright. Twisting Royval’s head off his neck! He can’t get it under the chin though and Royval survives and gets out of danger. Royval briefly goes for a kneebar in the scramble, loses it but does manage to at least salvage full guard. So at least he’s got Moreno off his back now. He’s going for a leg lock again but Moreno rolls through and, somewhere in this exchange, Royval lets out a little scream, he’s injured, and Moreno ends up on his back again dropping punches.

It’s over. It was hard to see exactly how it happened but Royval’s shoulder popped out somewhere in there and that’s when Moreno took over.

Winner - Brandon Moreno by TKO. Round 1 - 4:59.

Yep. One bastard second left in the round. Although it really wouldn’t have made any difference. The way Royval was rolling about in agony, there’s no way this fight was gonna continue into a second round, is there? They’d have stopped it between rounds. They show Royval’s cornerman Marc Montoya popping the shoulder back in and Rogan and DC are saying he could’ve continued if he could’ve lasted that one second and made it back to the corner. I don’t know. Maybe he could’ve fought on if Montoya was able to get his hands on him between rounds. Regardless, it was a shame to see it end like that. It was a tremendous fight the short time it lasted and, while Moreno was in control to some degree, I think Royval was very much still in it. He was always active off his back, going for submissions, landing elbows and trying to make stuff happen. And on the feet, I thought he was getting the better of it. Which is why I think Moreno went more the takedown route as it went on.

Really looking forward to this rematch. It’s easy to look back at that first fight now with the Moreno rose tints on because we know what he went onto do after that. That win over Royval was the reason he got that first Figgy fight the following month. After that he was a made man and the rest is history. But seriously, if you go back and watch this fight, Royval was right there with him. And he was coming into that fight off more impressive performances and with arguably more momentum than Moreno at the time. I’m favouring Moreno again tonight because I think ultimately he’s gonna have the advantage again when it comes to takedowns and that’ll allow him to dictate where the fight goes. He’s also got more 5 round experience and I think he’s better at pacing himself as a result, whereas Royval’s more erratic and wild. I wouldn’t count Royval out here. If he can find a way to keep it on the feet he could have a lot of success. But I’m going Moreno on points in a barnburner. I think he’s just got a couple of extra tools overall and Royval did step in for Albazi here and on a fairly quick turnaround after the Pantoja loss in December. Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing for him but it doesn’t seem ideal.

Whatever happens I just hope it’s a great fight. Royval getting criticism after the Pantoja fight, as if he’s a boring fighter, was total shite. That was the first time I’ve ever seen him in anything resembling a lacklustre fight and fans were on him about it. Win or lose, I’m hoping he redeems himself tonight with a better showing at least.

Edited February 24 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

Talking to myself here but sod it 🤣 The other half of the double main event tonight.

Like I said in the opening post, I was excited for this fight from the second it was announced. The Featherweight division had become a bit frustrating to me at this time. 145 had a bunch of really entertaining fighters but between Yair and Ortega both taking long breaks between fights, the Korean Zombie having setbacks with injuries and Zabit Magomedsharipov disappearing off the face of the earth, a lot of those ‘dream fights’ just weren’t happening. I think I said back then that I felt like that mix at the top of the division - Volk, Max, Yair, Ortega, Zombie, Zabit - had the potential to be the UFC’s equivalent of the Four Kings era in Middleweight boxing in the 80s. It obviously never would’ve had the wider impact Leonard, Hagler, Hearns and Duran had but I meant in terms of having a group of guys all fighting each other, like a round robin thing, and putting out bangers left and right. It felt like that lot had all the ingredients to keep the Featherweight division hot for years. It never materialised but we got some of those fights at least.

So yeah, that’s my long winded way of saying I was chuffed when Yair vs Ortega got booked. My excitement cooled off a bit when fight week rolled around though, and both Yair and Ortega seemed like they didn’t really wanna fight each other. I didn’t know they were friends until fight week but they spent most of that week hugging and fist bumping and both seemed a bit bummed out that they had to fight. Still, I was looking forward to it.

Ortega was coming off his unsuccessful title shot against Volk here. He lost a decision that night and took a beating but it didn’t feel like his stock had taken a massive hit because it was such a great fight and he did have that moment where he had Volk in deep shit with the mounted guillotine. Yair was in kind of a similar situation. He’d just lost to Max Holloway in the November but it was an absolute 5 round war and a legit FOTY contender.

Brian Ortega vs Yair Rodriguez

UFC Fight Night: Ortega vs Rodriguez

July 16th 2022

Long Island, New York 

Commentators for this are Jon Anik, Daniel Cormier and Paul Felder. Yay, no Rogan at least. Referee is Keith Peterson. Ortega and Rodriguez still look sad about fighting each other during the fucking ref’s instructions.

They go one further than touching gloves here, they shake hands. Then Ortega pulls him in for a big cuddle. Christ. I’m all for showing respect and not faking beef where there isn’t any but by this point I must admit I was pig sick of the love-in with these two. They’d been hugging all week. Leave the friendship on the outside of the Octagon door lads, for fuck’s sake!

Round 1: For all my thinking that the buddy buddy build up might effect the fight, I needn’t have worried. The fight starts and it seems the friendship is a distant memory. They both immediately come out aggressive. Yair’s looking sharper and getting the better of the opening exchanges.

He stings Ortega with the first clean punch of the fight. Yair’s mixing up his strikes and, while Ortega is constantly walking forward and throwing punches, it feels like it’s more him trying to just pressure Yair and close the distance to stifle Yair’s attacks and set up his grappling. He’s cut Yair with something though, according to Anik. Yair with a knee to the head and a leg kick. Ortega finally gets hold of him, grabs a body lock and pushes Yair against the fence. And that’s where they stay for a bit. Nothing much happening for a spell until Ortega tries to drop down for a quick takedown and Yair gets away. And literally as soon as they’re back in striking range…

It’s no secret but Ortega has a fucking chin on him. That was flush on the jaw and he just shook it off and kept coming forward. As the round is coming to a close you can see Yair is really starting to feel comfortable with just letting loose on the feet. He throws a headkick round the side then a teep kick down the middle straight after it, which just glances off Ortega’s face. Ortega immediately tries to initiate the grappling. He’s got Yair on the cage again and manages to finally get that elusive takedown with about a minute left in the round.

Problem is, the second Yair’s back touches the canvas he’s already positioning his body and coming over the head with his leg to set up an armbar. Ortega stacks him up and seems to be halfway out of danger…then suddenly, it’s over.

As you can see there, by the time he taps Yair’s leg, he already appears to be out of the armbar. Like with Moreno vs Royval, somewhere in that grappling exchange, Ortega suffered a shoulder injury and that was that. It wasn’t like he just stepped wrong and blew a knee out or something. Whatever happened happened as a result of Yair’s grappling and Ortega trying to defend against it.

Winner - Yair Rodriguez by TKO. Round 1 - 4:11.

A legitimate win but far from a satisfactory ending to what was shaping up to be a cracking battle. Really unfortunate. In the immediate in-cage fallout, they’re both understandably disappointed with how it played out but Yair specifically says in his post-fight interview that he’d be open for a rematch but would rather only do it if it’s for the title. Once I heard that, I gave up on any chance of seeing it again. I’m happy to be wrong about that.

Can’t wait to see them go again. Hopefully we get the war we expected the first one to be. Although, I’ve gotta admit, I was 50/50 on this before watching this fight back, I’m definitely leaning more towards Yair. I didn’t remember it at the time but rewatching this now, anti-climactic ending aside, it honestly felt like it was just a matter of time before Yair caught him with something nasty, either on the feet or the ground. It was more one sided than I remembered. I thought he was easily winning the standup here and, even when Ortega got the takedown, the speed with which Yair had him in trouble on the ground was crazy. Obviously Ortega has a really strong ground game but seeing him work hard for that takedown the whole round, only to be immediately put in danger and on the defence when he did get him down, it just makes you realise there’s really no safe route for Ortega here. On top of that, Ortega has been inactive since he last fought Yair! It’s getting on for 2 years he’s been on the shelf. The last time Ortega had a long layoff he came back looking good but you can’t keep doing that. He’s lost a fair old chunk of what should’ve been his prime years. Yair’s had his own sabbaticals at various points but he should be the way sharper of the two here considering his 2 fights last year were both scheduled 5 rounders. We’ll see.

🇲🇽👊

Edited February 24 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

[wandshogun09]

Start times.

[wandshogun09]

Well those top two results in the main and co-main didn’t go to plan, did they?

Don’t think many were calling a Brandon Royval win. I said in my review of the first fight that Royval might do very well if he can keep it on the feet but I never expected it to actually play out like that. Considering Moreno’s success in their first fight mostly came from his grappling, I was a bit baffled here that he seemed to just abandon that aspect of his game and just kept winging loopy punches. It was a really close fight, so of course, there’s been cries of robbery. But I really felt like this could’ve gone either way, with either man winning by a point. Thought the judge who had it 49-46 Moreno was smoking crack. I wouldn’t have had a problem with Moreno getting the decision but he never won 4-1. I’m not sure why he never went with more of a grappling game plan here, or at least mixed in the odd takedown just to keep Royval guessing. Something looked a bit off about Moreno here to me. If I didn’t know otherwise I’d have thought it was him who was the late replacement. I don’t know if all those wars with Figgy and Pantoja are finally catching up to him or what but I felt like this was probably the worst I’ve seen him look in a long time. Credit to Royval though for taking the quick turnaround here, after getting dominated by Pantoja just 2 months ago, and beating Moreno in Mexico of all places. Going 5 rounds on short notice, at high altitude, in hostile territory, and winning! Fair play.

What the fuck happens next though? This was a tremendous win for Royval but he literally just lost to Pantoja in December. And it wasn’t close. It’s way too soon for a rematch. Even with the UFC’s boner for title rematches, surely they won’t wanna rerun that one yet. Especially when it’d be a third fight, Royval’s already 0-2 down. But who else is there? You’ve got to assume they want Pantoja on UFC 301 in Rio. Him and Alex Pereira are the only Brazilian champions on the roster and they’ve already booked Pereira for 300 the month before. Do we get Pantoja vs Albazi? Is Albazi even healthy? There’s Kape but he can’t be relied on to make weight/make it to fight night. If the rumours of Horiguchi coming in were true then I’d say just do Pantoja vs Horiguchi straight away. But I don’t know if that’s actually happening. It’s gonna be Pantoja vs Royval 3 isn’t it?

Ortega vs Rodriguez 2 was a bit of a rollercoaster. After the anti-climax of the way the first fight ended, to Ortega finally returning and us getting this rematch that I never really expected to see. To then see this shit during the intros…

I was genuinely thinking this fight must be cursed. Honestly thought Ortega had fucked it right there before the fight had even got underway. Then it started and Yair dropped him within the first minute or so. Then Yair was busting him up with kicks to the body, bloodied his face up and stuff. Just couldn’t have started much worse for Ortega. Somehow he weathered the storm and turned things around in the second round and it felt like Yair had either faded from failing to put Ortega away with that initial onslaught, or he’d become completely demoralised. He looked like a beaten man to me after the second round. And sure enough, early in the third…

Great win for T-City, and a much needed one. I got this completely wrong. I think I said the other day, I was about 50/50 on this fight right up until I rewatched the first fight. After that I was pretty sure Yair was gonna put a bit of a beating on him. And, well, he did for a round. One thing that’s always been undeniable about Ortega though, is he’s tough as fuck. He had a lot going against him here - the layoff, rolling his ankle during the sodding intros, losing the first round big etc. But he came through.

Fun fight. Although I’m not sure what’s next for either man. Surely Ortega doesn’t get a title shot off this? I’d go with Ortega vs Evloev myself. Maybe Yair vs Giga Chikadze or Edson Barboza. And, while it shouldn’t be next, I’d be up for Ortega vs Yair 3 at some point now they’re officially 1-1 in the record books.

Zellhuber vs Prado was some fight. With the main and co-main on this card, I don’t think anyone really thought about anything from the undercard stealing the show but these lads did it. Well deserved FOTN. Zellhuber has looked good in a couple of fights I’ve seen but this was definitely his best performance to date. And although Prado took a beating, his toughness and sheer refusal to fuck off is what really made the fight. Although this from the cornerman was as baffling and stupid as it was funny…

Prado’s eyes have been beaten shut and his cornerman chooses then to tell him “You don’t need your eyes”. Cheers for that. Got any more life advice? Hopefully Prado can bounce back from this and learn and improve from it. As fun as the fight was, it was a lot of punishment for a 21 year old kid to take.

Wasn’t blown away by the Yazmin Jauregui fight but she looked good and, coming off her first loss and getting smashed in 20 seconds, this was probably just what the doctor ordered. She got 3 rounds in and won a clear decision. Yeah Sam Hughes isn’t an amazing win but it was an ideal rebound fight and she really outclassed her. I saw an interview with Jauregui after the fight and I like that she’s not looking to rush. She said something like she’s not looking to fight ranked opponents yet she just wants to keep improving. Seems like that loss last time really made her go back to basics and she’s still young enough that there’s no need to rush anyway.

Manuel Torres kicked the main card off in style, subbing Chris Duncan in less than 2 minutes. Had to withstand a big whack that wobbled him at the start but he responded with venom and choked Duncan. I had no opinion on Torres for a while but between that beautiful elbow KO in his previous fight and now this, he’s quickly becoming someone I look forward to seeing on a card.

Raoni Barcelos not only managed to snap the losing skid he was on, he overcome a dislocated shoulder and got his first UFC finish since 2019!

Granted it was only against Cristian Quinonez. This was a big step down in competition compared to Barcelos’ last couple of fights but he needed a win and he got it. He was fortunate that his shoulder popped out right at the end of the first round and his cornerman was able to just pop it back into place. If it happened in the middle of a round it could’ve been a completely different outcome. Kind of funny though, how it happened on this card when both Moreno vs Royval and Ortega vs Yair were rematches of fights that ended in large part due to dislocated shoulders. Barcelos blatantly grabbing the fence was bullshit but, with the card being in Mexico, I’m chalking it up as a tribute to Eddie Guerrero. He lies, he cheats, he steals.

Edgar Chairez finally put to bed this weird mini series with Daniel Lacerda. Still wasn’t 100% straightforward though as both missed weight, Chairez missed by 5lbs. Not good. Regardless, the fight itself was easy work for Chairez in the end. No controversy in the actual fight.

2 minute squash match. Lacerda just can’t buy a win! He shot in, got the takedown, then Chairez had him locked in the triangle almost immediately. Lacerda’s one of those guys who’s never in boring fights but this is surely it for him in the UFC now. Even in this day and age where they keep lower card fighters around forever on losing streaks just because they need bodies to fill all these cards. Even taking that into consideration, this felt like the death blow for Lacerda to me. Just loss after loss. If he’d gone out there and dragged Chairez into some crazy war and lost a fight like that, maybe he’d get one more shot. But losing like this just felt like the final straw for him.

Lost track of the scoring in the Fares Ziam vs Claudio Puelles fight but I didn’t feel like Ziam getting the nod was a bad decision. My main takeaway from this, again, is that Puelles really doesn’t have enough about his overall MMA game.

Ronaldo Rodriguez had a good debut. First time seeing him but right from his entrance I liked his energy and he was entertaining in the cage as well.

Gonna be keeping an eye on him. Not that I’m expecting him to go on some tear now, but I think he’ll be fun to watch whoever they chuck him in with. Denys Bondar might wanna consider a new career path though. He’s gone 0-3 since signing with the UFC and it always ends badly for him. An injury in his debut, a horribly late stoppage/brutal KO loss in his second fight, now he gets throttled.

Decent show. Felt like the altitude definitely was a factor in some of the fights but on the whole I enjoyed it. Although there were videos going around of some of the scraps in the crowd and that could’ve got really ugly. Dana was saying something after the show, laughing about how the security didn’t even break it up they just let the fights play out. All fun and games until someone gets badly hurt.

Oh and like I said earlier in the thread, Rey gets about a bit…

Edited February 26 by wandshogun09