Brandon Moreno now has a new opponent for UFC Fight Night 268 in Mexico City, Mexico on February 28th after his original main event opponent Asu Almabayev withdrew due to an injury.
Moreno will now be going up against Lone’er Kavanagh, who was originally scheduled to fight Bruno Silva at UFC Fight Night 269 on March 14th at the Apex in Las Vegas.
The 26-year-old Kavanagh is a surprising choice for a main event spot like this given that he’s not only just three fights into his UFC career and currently unranked, but is also coming in off a KO loss to Charles Johnson back in August of last year.
That was the first loss of Kavanagh’s 10-fight career though, after having previously earned a 1st round KO victory on the Contender Series, followed by back-to-back wins over Jose Ochoa and Felipe dos Santos in the UFC.
He’s now taking a major step up in competition on a few weeks notice against former flyweight champion Moreno, who is also coming off a loss, having been TKO’d by Tatsuro Taira back in December.
That was the first time Moreno’s been stopped by strikes in his 23-9-2 career, and came after having won back-to-back fights against Amir Albazi and Steve Erceg, leaving him ranked No.5 in the division.
Moreno vs. Kavanagh fronts a UFC event in Mexico City that will also feature Marlon Vera vs. David Martinez, Daniel Zellhuber vs. King Green and Macy Chiasson vs. Ailin Perez.
