On Saturday night in Mexico City, Brandon Moreno did enough in the judges’ eyes to win a unanimous decision over Steve Erceg in the main event of UFC Fight Night Mexico.
Moreno won 49-46 on all three judges’ scorecards despite being out-landed by Erceg in every round and overall, 116-89.
While the fight didn’t feature any knockdowns, Moreno came close to dropping Erceg in the first round, and he landed the more wow punches in a fight that was contested almost entirely on the feet.
The win positions Moreno, a former flyweight champion, as a legit option to challenge for the title again later this year. He could be the easy choice if Kai Kara-France dethrones Alexandre Pantoja this summer.
If Pantoja wins, because he has beaten Moreno three times, the latter may still find himself behind Manel Kape—whom Pantoja has also defeated. We could see Pantoja move up to bantamweight if he beats KKF, which is something most of the other flyweights would probably appreciate.
The loss puts Erceg in a bad spot. He’s now lost three fights in a row. What’s worse is that he has lost to Pantoja, KKF, and now Moreno, which means he’s already fallen to the champion and two of the top contenders.
Erceg’s path from here is unclear. Perhaps a fight with Asu Almabayev would make sense considering he was just stopped by Kape earlier this year. The rest of the card was pretty exciting with five finishes.
The UFC did not give a Fight of the Night bonus, though I thought Loopy Godinez vs. Julia Polastri was worthy. Their fight graded the highest on my Fight Score metric.
The bonuses went to Edgar Chairez, David Martinez, Ateba Gautier and Manuel Torres.
It was a day for the up-and-coming fighters as the bonus winners pool featured two fighters making their promotional debuts (Gautier and Martinez). The only fighter who scored a finish who didn’t get a bonus was Jamall Emmers.
Here is a look at all of the results and highlights of the finishes.
UFC Mexico Main Card Results
- Flyweight: Brandon Moreno def. Steve Erceg via Unanimous Decision (49–46, 49–46, 49–46)
- Lightweight: Manuel Torres def. Drew Dober via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 1:45 – BONUS
- Flyweight: Edgar Chairez def. C.J. Vergara via Submission (face crank) – Round 1, 2:30 – BONUS
- Bantamweight: Raúl Rosas Jr. def. Vince Morales via Unanimous Decision (29–28, 29–28, 29–28)
- Bantamweight: David Martínez def. Saimon Oliveira via TKO (Punches) – Round 1, 4:38 – BONUS
- Flyweight: Kevin Borjas def. Ronaldo Rodríguez via Unanimous Decision (30–27, 30–27, 29–28)
UFC Mexico Preliminary Card
- Middleweight: Ateba Abega Gautier def. José Daniel Medina via KO (punches and knee) – Round 1, 3:32 – BONUS
- Featherweight: Melquizael Costa def. Christian Rodriguez via Unanimous Decision (29–28, 29–28, 29–28)
- Women’s Strawweight: Loopy Godínez def. Julia Polastri via Unanimous Decision (29–28, 29–28, 29–28)
- Lightweight: Rafa García def. Vinc Pichel via Unanimous Decision (30–27, 30–27, 29–28)
- Featherweight: Jamall Emmers def. Gabriel Miranda via TKO (Punches) – Round 1, 4:06
- Lightweight: MarQuel Mederos def. Austin Hubbard via Split Decision (28–29, 29–28, 29–28)
