MMA news: Brandon Moreno to mark homecoming with a win over Steve Erceg
The fight between two-time UFC flyweight champion Brandon Moreno and former title challenger Steve Erceg headlines this weekend’s UFC Fight Night in Mexico as current champion Alexandre Pantoja awaits a contender.
With Pantoja holding multiple wins over various top fighters at 125 pounds, it has been unclear for some time who his next challenger will be.
An impressive performance from either Moreno or Erceg in Saturday’s main event could therefore be enough to secure a title shot against The Cannibal.
Sports News Blitz writer Niall Togher previews the bout and predicts a winner.
The Moreno vs Pantoja trilogy
For Moreno, this match-up is crucial if he wants to secure a third fight with Pantoja.
On paper, Moreno’s record of 1-2 in his last three fights doesn’t make for good reading, with losses to Pantoja and Brandon Royval preceding a spectacular rebound win over Amir Albazi.
Those losses were extremely close fights, though, in which the Mexican could have had his hand raised and people wouldn’t have been screaming from the rooftops that it was a robbery.
With that said, Moreno has now lost twice to Pantoja – once in the UFC and once on The Ultimate Fighter TV series in an exhibition bout.
The former champion must find a win and look impressive if he is to convince the UFC that he is worthy of a trilogy fight despite losing on both occasions against Pantoja.
For most fighters in Moreno’s position, they would be relying on a new champion to snatch the belt away from Pantoja in order to secure a title shot, but the lack of clear contenders in the flyweight division means that a trilogy is not too far-fetched of an idea.
Moreno took a break from MMA after his loss to Royval, citing mental fatigue after what was a sloppy performance across five rounds.
Despite being just 31, Moreno already has 32 fights under his belt, including a number of brutal five-round wars, and we could be witnessing the beginning of the end for The Assassin Baby.
His fight with Albazi, it must be said, was a reminder that Moreno is still a world-class fighter, and Saturday’s bout with Erceg could provide some much-needed momentum.
Erceg out to prove himself
After bursting onto the scene and winning his first three fights in the UFC, Australian Steve Erceg was thrown into a title fight with Pantoja.
Despite it being extremely early in his UFC tenure, Erceg was able to give the Brazilian a run for his money.
He arguably won three of the five rounds with his boxing giving the champion much trouble before some ill-advised takedowns late on cost Erceg as Pantoja was able to reverse him and gain a dominant position to win the fight on the scorecards.
It was a losing effort but nevertheless a promising performance, and fans were excited to see how Erceg would perform against another top contender when he took on Kai Kara-France.
Unfortunately for Erceg, he was TKO’d by Kara-France in the first round of their fight back in August.
Now, despite suffering back-to-back losses and being ranked number eight in the division, Erceg is getting another crack at the top of the division in a main event against the number two–ranked Moreno.
There is no doubt that Erceg is a talented fighter, but he is yet to claim a signature win inside the UFC – every time he has faced the elite of the division, he has fallen short.
In the end, it is hard to pick him going into this fight with Moreno.
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Moreno to outlast Erceg in Mexico
Saturday’s bout will be nothing short of fireworks as Moreno and Erceg are two of the best boxers and strikers in the flyweight division.
Moreno, for his part, needs to ensure that he does not overextend during the striking exchanges like he did against Royval.
If the sloppier version of Moreno shows up, he might be prone to an elbow or a hook from Erceg, who has had success with those weapons in the past.
It would further suit Moreno’s chances to mix in some kicks at the end of his boxing combinations against a rangier opponent like Erceg.
The Mexican famously won the title with a rear-naked choke in his rematch with Deiveson Figueiredo back in 2021, but we have seen precious little offensive wrestling and grappling from Moreno in his most recent three fights.
Erceg also likes to mix it up with some wrestling at times as we saw in his fight with Pantoja, but if the fight hits the ground you would fancy Moreno to get the better of any scrambles between the two and perhaps even take the back of Erceg at some point.
Ultimately, due to Moreno’s proven experience at the top level along with his granite chin and solid cardio – key at elevation in Mexico – he feels like the safest bet to win what is set to be an extremely entertaining fight.
Fight prediction: Brandon Moreno to win by decision
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