Brandon Royval avenges previous defeat to Brandon Moreno in UFC Mexico City main event
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to us tonight, February 24, 2024, for UFC Mexico City going down live from Mexico City, Mexico.
Headlining the event was a 125 lb rematch between no. 1 ranked former two-time flyweight champion Brandon Moreno (21-8-1) and no. 3 ranked former title challenger Brandon Royval (16-7).
Moreno was originally slated to face no. 2 ranked flyweight contender Amir Albazi at this event, though Albazi withdrew from the bout and was replaced by Royval. The former Mexican champion also became the first man to ever finish Royval in their first encounter, doing so via TKO (injury) in the final second of round one.
Continue reading to see how our flyweight main event of the evening went down:
Official Result: Brandon Royval def. Brandon Moreno via split decision (48-47, 46-49, 48-47)
Royval takes the center once the bout begins without much happening through the opening three-plus minutes of the bout, eventually eating a two-punch combination by Moreno before landing a good left hand of his own. Moreno landed a solid right kick to the body shortly thereafter, and continued landing punches as Royval was coming in.
Moreno lands a hard right hand early on in the second, continuing to land on Royval as he’s coming in. Royval landed a good knee up the middle followed by a punch combination, and he came alive midway through round two. He kept landing straight punches and round kicks to the body until he was taken down.
Royval goes for a gogoplata before Moreno escapes it and they return to their feet in the final 15 seconds of the second.
Royval had a good round three, throwing more volume than the former champion which led to more strikes landed. He was however taken down a couple times in the middle stretch, and Moreno did end the round with two good combinations, each followed by a leg kick.
Moreno continued attacking the lead leg of Royval early in round four, landing a number of them until Royval makes the adjustment, makes him miss a couple, and starts to get his strikes going again. Royval backs Moreno up to the fence with a combination just before securing a double leg takedown, which Moreno got back up from soon after. He then gets back to his combinations and round kicks to the body once they return to their feet.
Moreno ties up with Royval once the fifth and final round begins, eventually being separated by the referee two minutes in. This would be a recurring thing in this round, as it happened twice more when Royval was getting off good combinations on the feet.
This was a very close one. Moreno did well early on, Royval did well later on, and each were competitive in each round, but the right man won tonight’s main event, just barely. Moreno has been in a lot of wars, and even though he’s still just 30 years of age, his performance tonight looked like they’ve taken their toll.
Nonetheless let’s not that take anything away from Brandon Royval’s performance tonight, he just defeated a former multi-time champion and avenged a future defeat in the process, improving him to 4-1 in his last five.
Interestingly enough, our co-main event tonight came in the featherweight division when no. 3 ranked former interim champion Yair Rodriguez faced no. 4 ranked former two-time title challenger Brian Ortega in their rematch. Ortega, like Royval, was injured late in round one, also a shoulder injury, ultimately losing the fight via TKO. He also avenged his defeat from that night tonight.
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