Brandon Moreno Becomes First Mexican Born UFC Champ

Mexico is no stranger to champions in combat sports. Just look at boxing. Some of the all-time greats are from Mexico. However, Mexico has not had a Mexican-born UFC champ. That is, until Saturday. Brandon "The Assassin Baby" Moreno became the first Mexican-born UFC champ when he defeated Deiveson Figueiredo by rear-naked choke for the UFC Flyweight Belt.

This was a rematch from back in December when Moreno and Figueiredo went toe to toe, with that fight ending in a draw. The draw happened because Figueiredo was deducted one point in the third round because of an illegal groin strike.

It was just a few years ago things got rough for Moreno as he suffered back-to-back losses. First it was against Sergio Pettis on August 5th, 2017. Then it was against Alexandre Pantoja on May 19th, 2018. Both losses were by unanimous decision. Since then though, Moreno is undefeated winning 5 fights, with 2 draws. It's also been a nice mix of victories for Moreno with two by TKO, two by unanimous decision, and one by submission.

Moreno was born and raised in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico to a family that owns a modest piñata business. He started training in mixed martial arts when he was 12 because he wanted to lose weight. If he hadn't gone into mixed martial arts as a career, he would probably doing just fine anyway. He toyed with the idea of going to law school to become a lawyer. But, rather than winning fights in the octagon, Moreno is winning fights in the octagon.