No.2 ranked flyweight contender Amir Albazi has unfortunately suffered a neck injury that has forced him out of his headlining fight against Brandon Moreno at a UFC On ESPN event on February 24th in Mexico City, Mexico.
The good news is that the UFC have managed to find a perfect replacement in the No.3 ranked Brandon Royval, who is fresh off an unsuccessful attempt to win the 125lb title against Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 296 last month, losing out by unanimous decision.
Before that Royval had been on a three-fight winning streak, defeating Rogerio Bontorin, Matt Schnell and Matheus Nicolau.
This upcoming fight will be a rematch as Moreno beat Royval by 1st round TKO back at UFC 255 in October of 2020, before then going on to feature in an epic saga of four title fights against Deiveson Figueiredo in the years that followed, going 2-1-1 during that time as well as also having a short stint as interim champ too with a win over Kai Kara-France in 2022.
The final of Moreno’s fights with Figueiredo took place in January of last year, winning by TKO, but he’s since lost the belt via split-decision to Pantoja and will now hope that a win over Royval could be what he needs to get another shot at the title.
Moreno vs. Royval II headlines a UFC card in Mexico City that will also feature Yair Rodriguez vs. Brian Ortega in the co-main event.
