Brandon Moreno defeats Steve Erceg by unanimous determination of their principal occasion flyweight title eliminator bout in Mexico Metropolis.
Former two-time flyweight champion Brandon Moreno erased a stigma from his final Final Preventing Championship Mexico outing, successful a unanimous determination in opposition to Steve Erceg in a flyweight title eliminator bout on the UFC Combat Night time principal occasion, sweeping the playing cards 49-46, 49-46, 49-46 over the previous flyweight title challenger in Mexico Metropolis.
Though Saturday’s struggle was intently aggressive, Moreno gained all however one spherical – Spherical 3 – on all three playing cards because the 31-year-old stored the struggle standing and made Erceg come to him all through the bout.
Moreno by no means got here near securing a end in opposition to his opponent, however he outlanded his adversary 82-67 in complete strikes, making certain the Australian-born Erceg wouldn’t spring an upset in opposition to the hometown favorite.
Publish-fight, Moreno referred to as out UFC chief enterprise officer Hunter Campbell concerning steering for his subsequent struggle. Though Moreno didn’t title a would-be opponent explicitly, he requested to be a part of UFC 320, scheduled for September 13 in Guadalajara, Mexico.
“I believe I can transfer the needle,” Moreno stated after the struggle.
Erceg has dropped three in a row after a fast UFC begin, going again to the drafting board once more.
“I’ll be again,” Erceg stated.
Within the evening’s co-main occasion, Manuel Torres overwhelmed 12-year UFC veteran Drew Dober to safe a first-round technical knockout, the place Dober took no less than 16 unanswered pictures to the facet of the pinnacle earlier than the referee stopped the struggle.
Torres is again within the win column for the primary time in additional than a yr, whereas Dober has misplaced 4 of his final 5 courting to Could 2023.
In an earlier struggle on Saturday, Mexico’s rising UFC bantamweight star Raul Rosas Jr survived a late scare from Vince Morales to fend off a third-round D’arce choke submission and win a unanimous determination 29-28, 29-28, 29-28.
Rosas Jr ignited his hometown crowd to earn his fifth win over his final six appearances, utilizing his crisp boxing to frustrate Morales, who had not earned a win in combined martial arts since final August earlier than being re-signed to the promotion shortly thereafter.
