The UFC appears to have lost one regular viewer for its next flyweight title match.
At UFC 277 this past weekend, fan favorite Brandon Moreno had gold wrapped around his waist again. With champion Deiveson Figueiredo out through injury until the end of the year, the promotion booked “The Assassin Baby” opposite fellow top-five contender Kai Kara-France in a rematch for the newly created interim belt.
In a close and competitive affair, many acknowledged that the Mexican had gotten the better of the action in rounds one and two but was beginning to eat some heavy shots from the surging New Zealander in the third.
Ultimately, the scorecards weren’t needed. With less than 30 seconds of the third frame remaining, Moreno launched a brutal body kick that connected to Kara-France’s liver and sent him rumpling to the ground. After a few follow-up shots, Herb Dean waved the fight off.
With the win, Moreno almost certainly set up a fourth showdown with Figueiredo, who entered the Octagon for a cordial and respectful exchange inside Dallas’ American Airlines Center.
But while the entertainment and competitive back and forth action that was on show in all three of their prior collisions would perhaps lead to most holding some level of excitement for a unique tetralogy, which will come with the scores tied at 1-1-1, one former UFC star doesn’t share that sentiment.
In fact, he says that he won’t even be tuning in for it.
Sonnen Drew The Line At Moreno/Figueiredo 2
During a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel, former two-division UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen assessed the outcomes from this past weekend’s UFC 277 pay-per-view.
While he praised both Moreno and Kara-France for their performances, he essentially branded the result as worst-case scenario for the division.
Clearly not a fan repeats, “The American Gangster” suggested that he won’t be watching the inevitable unification fight, having not even viewed the trilogy between Moreno and Figueiredo earlier this year.
“The only thing I don’t want to happen — and this is just Chael the fan — I don’t wanna see Moreno versus Figueiredo again, and I won’t,” Sonnen asserted. “I couldn’t watch their third fight. I already seen them out there, too many times. This is for me… Now they’re gonna be scheduled for five more rounds. I’m not going to be part of it.”
Moreno and Figueiredo first collided in the UFC 256 main event in December 2020. A mere 20 days after both appeared at UFC 255, where the Brazilian decimated Alex Perez in his first title defense and the Mexican got past Brandon Royval, the pair fought to a majority draw after five rounds.
Having proved that “Deus Da Guerra,” who’d dominated his previous three fights, wasn’t invincible, Moreno made the most of his second opportunity, submitting the Brazilian in round three at UFC 263 last June.
But the first UFC reign of a Mexican-born champion was to be short-lived, with Figueiredo exacting revenge eight months later at UFC 270, where he secured a unanimous decision win.
Will you be watching Brandon Moreno vs. Deiveson Figueiredo 4?
