Moreno, Albazi take different roads to UFC Fight Night main event in Edmonton

Brandon Moreno poses on the scale during a ceremonial weigh-in for the UFC 290 mixed martial arts event, Friday, July 7, 2023, in Las Vegas. Moreno is scheduled to race Alexandre Pantoja in a flyweight bout Saturday. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP)

EDMONTON -

Brandon (The Assassin Baby) Moreno has pretty much done it all in the UFC.

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The 30-year-old Mexican has been cut by the promotion, won and lost the flyweight title and then won and lost the 125-pound championship again.

He has fought for the title six times — winning three times with two losses and a majority draw — including a trilogy with Brazil's Deiveson Figueiredo that saw Moreno draw, win and lose.

Moreno, currently ranked second among UFC 125-pound contenders, looks to move closer to another title shot Saturday when he takes on No. 3 Amir Albazi in the main event of a UFC Fight Night card at Edmonton's Rogers Place.

Moreno (21-8-2) is coming off split-decision losses to American No. 1 contender Brandon (Raw Dawg) Royval, in February, and Alexandre (The Cannibal) Pantoja of Brazil, who took away his championship belt at UFC 290 in July 2023.

After the Royval loss, Moreno talked of taking the rest of the year off. But he said he soon started having second thoughts. 

"I'm a competitor … Three weeks after (taking a break) I'm starting to think like 'Damn, I want to fight,'" he recalled.

But his coaches and wife convinced him to take a break. Until now. And Moreno is grateful for the time away.

"My energy right now, feels amazing. I feel so hyped," he said in English. "It's crazy how my last two training 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."

"Now I feel perfect," he added

Moreno hopes a victory over Albazi (17-1-0) will set up a title showdown against either Pantoja or UFC newcomer Kai Asakura of Japan, who are scheduled to meet Dec. 7 at UFC 310 for the flyweight title.

Moreno, the UFC's first Mexican champion, has a 9-5-2 record in the UFC.

The co-main event Saturday is a women's flyweight matchup of No. 3 Erin (Cold Blooded) Blanchfield and No. 5 Rose (Thug) Namajunas, a former two-time strawweight titleholder. Previously announced as the main event, the all-American clash remains a five-round bout.

Canadians on the card are middleweight Marc-Andre (Power Bar) Barriault, welterweight (Proper) Mike Malott, bantamweights Aiemann Zahabi, Charles (Air) Jourdain and Chad (The Monster) Anheliger, and flyweights Jasmine Jasudavicius and Jamey-Lyn Horth.

The card also features Ukraine-born bantamweight Serhiy Sidey, who fights out of Burlington, Ont.

The 31-year-old Albazi, who has not fought since June 2023, has had his own challenges getting here.

He was struggling with unknown health issues before that last fight, a win over New Zealand's Kai (Don't Blink) Kara-France. Tests subsequently showed supraventricular tachycardia, an irregular heart beat, with his heart rate going as high as 239.

He recovered after heart surgery and was preparing to fight Moreno in Mexico City in February when his body failed again.

"My left arm literally stopped. I couldn't lift my arm up. I couldn't jab. I couldn't do anything."

Against the advice of his coaches, Albazi kept training. But after an MRI, a doctor told him to stop fighting and "find a nine to five (job)."

The UFC doctors eventually ordered neck surgery.

"They told me I was one punch away from actually getting paralyzed," Albazi said.

The surgeon put in two artificial discs. "I have a titanium neck now, I guess," he said with a big smile.

"It was a lot of hard moments" he added "But I tried to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm a big believer in God so I believe that my path is written. I knew I was going to come back. I had a feeling this would be just another hurdle I need to overcome. And I was right. Here I am."

Albazi has won his last six fights, including all five in the UFC starting with a submission victory over Canadian Malcolm (X) Gordon in July 2020.

Fourteen of his career wins have come by stoppage, with six knockouts and nine submissions.

Born in Iraq, Albazi moved to Syria with his family as a child before settling in Sweden. He subsequently moved to England.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2024.