As Brandon Moreno looks to pick up his first victory over Alexandre Pantoja in his next title defense, the current UFC flyweight champion is confident Pantoja hasn’t seen anywhere near his best match in the past two fights.
The third meeting of the pairings will take place at UFC 290 on July 8 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. They encountered each other for the first time during season 24 of the show The ultimate fighter In 2016 Pantoja won the submission. In his rematch, Pantoja was awarded a unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 129 just over two years later. This time, Moreno plans to show something Pantoja hasn’t seen of him.
“I’ve said this before and I’ll say this now – he never fought against the best Brandon Moreno when we fought each other,” Moreno said. MMA watch. “But at the moment I’m just focusing on him. I’m just training for him, executing the match plan for him and I’m ready, man.”
After Moreno’s tournament victory over Devson Figueiredo at UFC 283 in January, Pantoja congratulated Moreno backstage before challenging him to his next outing. Moreno brushed it off, feeling somewhat that Pantoja should have given him space to celebrate the victory.
Now, Pantoja — a three-straight winner — will be looking to put his money where his mouth is at the event that concludes the promotion’s International Fight Week. While both fighters differ from their second bout in over five years, Moreno feels there is one intangible at play that will make the difference.
“I mean, I can talk about a lot of different things like the technical part, the mental part, whatever, but the real difference in this fight is going to be [that] “I’m a better athlete,” Moreno said on The MMA Hour. “I am a better athlete and I will show it in July.”