Brandon Moreno finally brought an end to his quadrilogy with Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 283 in January when he beat him by TKO to reclaim the title, and now he’s looking ahead to what might come next.
Moreno suggests that he’d like to become more active again, but at the same time has admitted that the perfect scenario for him would be a rematch with current No.2 ranked contender Alexandre Pantoja in September.
“I would like to fight two more times this year – one in June and then again in November or December,” Moreno told MMA Junkie (translated from Spanish). “I was fighting three times a year. I had that rhythm before the whole thing with Figueiredo started, so I’d like to pick that rhythm back up.
“But if UFC gives me the perfect excuse to wait until September for a pay-per-view in Mexico City, the launch of the Performance Institute (in Mexico), which I think this year gets launched, I think that’s an incredible excuse. I wouldn’t be surprised if they offer me Pantoja for the next one, so I think that would be the ideal scenario for me.”
Pantoja is an opponent Moreno already knows well as he fought him once before back in 2018 and lost via unanimous decision.
That victory was the first in a three-fight winning streak for Pantoja at the time, but there’s been a couple of bumps in the road since, with decision losses to Deiveson Figueiredo in 2019 and Askar Askarov a year later having thwarted his big to get into title contention.
However, the 32-year-old is currently on another three-fight unbeaten stretch, beating Manel Kape on the scorecards and both Brandon Royval and Alex Perez by submission to reach this point.
As for Moreno, since his defeat against Pantoja he’s only been defeated on one occasion by his long-time rival Figueiredo, compiling a 6-1-2 record and earning wins over other top-ranked talents like the aforementioned Figueiredo (x2), Kai Kara-France (x2), Brandon Royval and Jussier Formiga.
