Last weekend, on the undercard of UFC Fight Night 108 in Nashville, Tennessee, 23-year-old flyweight prospect Brandon Moreno dropped the far more experienced Dustin Ortiz with a head kick, then tapped him out with a rear-naked choke.
With this win, the young flyweight star moved to 3-0 as a member of the UFC flyweight roster. In his first bout in the division, he shocked the world with a first-round submission over the ever-dangerous Louis Smolka. In his next outing, he built on his momentum with a split win over the tough Ryan Benoit. Now, with this latest win over Ortiz, he stands out as one of the fastest rising stars in the talent starved flyweight division.
In fact, Moreno already looks like a potential future opponent for incredibly dominant flyweight king Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson. While Moreno admits that he still some distance from a flyweight title shot, he recently assured that he will ultimately win the divisional crown.
“I am 23 years old; I have so much time to be better,” Moreno told MMAjunkie.com in the wake of his win. “But my last goal is to be a champion. Demetrious Johnson is a (expletive) monster. I need to be the champion in the future. It’s true. Maybe not today, maybe not even in the next year, but I will be champion.”
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When asked how he planned to beat the ever-dominant Mighty Mouse, who just scored a record-tying 10th straight title defense, Moreno said he wasn’t yet sure.
“Right now? I don’t know (how to beat him),” he said. “I need to talk with my coaches. But I promise one day.”
Moreno then discussed possible next steps for his exciting career, citing Ray Borg as a possible opponent, but expressing a bit of reluctance given Borg’s previous troubles with the scale.
“It’s really important to say names here in the company; it’s important,” Moreno said. “The big guys, the bosses, love that. But I don’t know. I wanted to fight with Ray Borg, but sometimes he doesn’t make the weight, and I don’t like that.”
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Do you think Brandon Moreno could one day crack the Mighty Mouse puzzle and earn flyweight gold? Sound off, PENN Nation!
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/23/2017.