Amir Albazi injured, Brandon Moreno vs Brandon Royval II now headlines UFC Mexico City
No. 2 ranked UFC flyweight contender Amir Albazi (17-1) has been forced from his upcoming clash with no. 1 ranked former champion Brandon Moreno (21-7-2) at UFC Mexico City.
Albazi posted the following message to his Twitter account in light of the news (edited):
“I’m out of the fight against Moreno (on the) 24th of February. I have been dealing with a serious neck injury (0ver) the past few weeks. After some scans the UFC doctors decided to pull me out of the fight immediately. I want to apologize to the fans and the UFC. I will be back inshallah.”
UFC Mexico City is to go down on February 24, 2024, live on ESPN.
Moreno vs Albazi was originally slated to serve as the events five-round co-main event of the evening, before being pushed up to the main event slot. However, now that the bout has been scrapped, the UFC brass has decided to give the Moreno fight to no. 3 ranked Brandon Royval (15-7).
Royval fought Moreno once before back in November of 2020, losing the bout via TKO (injury) at 4:59 of round one. This was the first time Royval had ever been finished, suffering a dislocated shoulder in the bout, and it marked the first defeat of his promotional tenure.
Royval had octagon wins over both no. 10 ranked former title challenger Tim Elliott (arm-triangle choke) and no. 4 ranked Kai Kara-France (guillotine choke) at the time, and he’s since lost to current champion Alexandre Pantoja twice (rear naked choke, UD), but also defeated Rogerio Bontorin (SD), no. 9 ranked Matt Schnell (guillotine choke), and no. 5 ranked Matheus Nicolau (KO) since their first encounter.
Moreno on the other hand had those four title fights with Deiveson Figeuiredo immediately following his first clash with Royval, going 2-1-1 in those encounters, he TKO’d Kai Kara-France in their rematch, and lost his trilogy bout to Alexandre Pantoja (SD) in his most recent appearance.
As you see, both men are coming off five-round decision defeats to UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja, and both are looking to get their third, and fourth respective fights with the champion with a win next month.
Who comes out of this UFC Mexico City main event the victor?
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