It’s not unusual for an MMA fighter to have eight months in between fights. In fact, more than 100 of the 600-or-so current UFC fighters are amid an absence from the cage that has lasted eight months or longer, per the Roster Watch tracker.
In most cases, eight months doesn’t mean much for fighters, instead just how long it might take for a new fight to get finalized. But in the case of Brandon Moreno, that time away from competition has meant the world.
Moreno has been one of the busiest high-level UFC talents in recent years, having fought in seven consecutive five-round bouts since late 2020. Among those fights, six title appearances.
After being one of the division’s long-standing title players, Moreno dropped out of the 125-pound championship picture last year following a split decision loss to Alexandre Pantoja. In hopes of starting a campaign toward another title shot, he tried to rebound from that defeat early this year. In his home country of Mexico, Moreno faced off against Brandon Royval in a five-round rematch. However, something felt off that night.
“I feel like that night was the kind of night where your mind wasn’t there, and that was very frustrating,” Moreno said during a UFC media day this week. “My body was there, throwing punches, but my mind… I don’t know, man.”
Moreno didn’t get favored in another decision loss, marking his first two-fight skid since rejoining the UFC roster in 2019.
The defeat rocked Moreno to his core. After years of constantly being in the title picture, he was suddenly no longer considered one of the division’s best names.
The itch to compete kept bothering Moreno after his last loss, with the urge to fight re-emerging just weeks after he faced Royval. But taking the advice of those close to him, he decided to stay away from MMA for a while.
“My wife and my coach was like: ‘Hey, you have to take a break,'” Moreno remembered being told. “‘You have to take it serious. You have to rest, be with your family, with your daughters. Make more nice moments with them first.’ I had this fight with myself in my mind to take this break serious.”
When Moreno announced his move to step away from MMA in March, some might have thought he would be gone for a while. Maybe he would have an absence like Israel Adesanya, who spent nearly a year in between fights before coming back earlier this year. But after just eight months, he’s back this weekend.
The length of Moreno’s break might make you question whether he is fully back and ready to compete again. But according to him, the time away has made huge physical and mental changes.
“My energy right now feels amazing,” he said. “I feel so hyped. It’s crazy how my last two fight camps, I didn’t feel like this. I felt all the stress, all the responsibilities. At some point, that exploded in my mind and I wasn’t really enjoying these kind of moments. And now I feel like before, when you start your career in the UFC … I tried to just recover my body, recover my mind, heal some injuries that were bothering me in my last training camp, and now I feel perfect.”
Moreno isn’t getting an easy assignment for his return. UFC has given him Amir Albazi, the highest-ranked flyweight contender who hasn’t yet been given a title shot. Albazi has yet to lose through five appearances in the promotion, including past bouts against Kai Kara-France and Alessandro Costa.
“The Assassin Baby” welcomes the idea that his first fight back is once again in the deep end of flyweight, where the past five years of his career have taken place.
“I respect every one of my opponents, and I’m expecting the best of them,” Moreno explained. “I’m expecting the best of Amir Albazi. He’s very motivated, he’s ready to win, and he wants the title. Man, I feel ready for that.”
Quite frankly, eight months is not a long time away from fighting. But if you take Moreno at his word, it’s done enough to bring back the type of fighter who captivated fans in a four-bout rivalry against Deiveson Figueiredo and allowed him to score a finish win over Kara-France in 2022. In just a day, we’ll see whether that fresher, rejuvenated Moreno has truly returned.
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