Brandon Moreno defeats Steve Erceg by unanimous resolution of their essential occasion flyweight title eliminator bout in Mexico Metropolis.
Former two-time flyweight champion Brandon Moreno erased a stigma from his final Final Combating Championship Mexico outing, successful a unanimous resolution in opposition to Steve Erceg in a flyweight title eliminator bout on the UFC Battle Evening essential 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 carefully aggressive, Moreno received all however one spherical – Spherical 3 – on all three playing cards because the 31-year-old saved 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 whole strikes, making certain the Australian-born Erceg wouldn’t spring an upset in opposition to the hometown favorite.
Submit-fight, Moreno known as out UFC chief enterprise officer Hunter Campbell concerning steerage 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 speedy UFC begin, going again to the drafting board once more.
“I’ll be again,” Erceg stated.
Within the night time’s co-main occasion, Manuel Torres overwhelmed 12-year UFC veteran Drew Dober to safe a first-round technical knockout, the place Dober took at the least 16 unanswered photographs to the aspect 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 12 months, whereas Dober has misplaced 4 of his final 5 relationship 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 resolution 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 blended martial arts since final August earlier than being re-signed to the promotion shortly thereafter.
