Brandon Moreno’s UFC Mexico homecoming will go down as a turning point in his career and not in the way he would have hoped.
Father Time has caught up to the two-time UFC flyweight champion, who suffered a second consecutive loss to a youthful contender as he dropped a unanimous decision to Lone’er Kavanagh in this past Saturday’s main event in Mexico City. Kavanagh, 26, and upcoming title challenger Tatsuro Taira, also 26, are primarily responsible for Moreno’s current slump, which has now seen him lose four of his past six fights.
On the subject of age, Moreno turned 32 this past December, young for an athlete, but concerning when you consider he’s been fighting professionally since 2011. And taking on high-level competition in the UFC since 2016. There isn’t a single weak opponent on Moreno’s octagon résumé (I’m not hearing your Ryan Benoit slander!) and his peak saw him go to war with Deiveson Figueiredo, Alexandre Pantoja, Brandon Royval, Kai Kara-France, Askar Askarov, and Jussier Formiga, multiple times in some instances.
That takes it’s toll and perhaps we’re simply seeing the consequence of all that rough mileage, not to mention the encroaching wave of talent in a weight class that favors speed, athleticism, and durability. So with all of that said, has the division passed Moreno by?
Our panel stopped short of bumping Moreno out of the top 10, but he falls two more spots to No. 9, the lowest he’s been since we started our rankings in 2021. Meanwhile, Kavanagh goes from unranked to a tie for the No. 7 spot, drawing comparisons to flyweight champion Joshua Van’s unbelievable jump from where he was at the end of 2024 to now.
Moreno was no higher than 8 and no lower than 11 in our votes, while Kavanagh was as high as 7. It has to be noted using MMA Math to sort out the flyweight rankings has become impossible when you consider that Kavanagh was knocked out by Charles Johnson just six months ago (“Join the club,” says Joshua Van), but we can’t just have Johnson ahead of him because Johnson lost to Alex Perez in January, and Alex Perez lost to Asu Almabayev in November, and Moreno still has recent wins over Steve Erceg and Amir Albazi, and… you get the idea.
So if you have a better way of sorting out flyweight right now, we’d love to hear it. Leave us a comment!
Check out MMA Fighting’s updated 125-pound rankings below.
Recent results for ranked fighters (previous ranking shown): No. 3 Kyoji Horiguchi def. No. 8 (tied) Amir Albazi, Lone’er Kavanagh def. No. 7 Brandon Moreno, No. 12 Alex Perez (missed weight) def. Charles Johnson
Upcoming bouts featuring ranked fighters: No. 2 Joshua Van vs. No. 5 Tatsuro Taira (UFC 327, April 11), No. 15 Charles Johnson vs. Bruno Silva (UFC Vegas 114, March 14)
Fighters also receiving votes (number of ballot appearances shown): Tim Elliott (2), Tagir Ulanbekov (1), Yuya Wakamatsu (1)
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