The co-main event of UFC 277 was set to crown an interim flyweight champion while the undisputed champion, Deiveson Figueiredo, is in the process of recovering from a finger injury. The former champ Brandon Moreno captured the title to set up a fourth fight with Figueiredo by finishing Kai Kara-France with a body kick late in the third round. This fight was probably the one that I was most looking forward to coming into the event and it was about as interesting as I anticipated. The fight was pretty competitive the whole way and that is really all I ask for in most of these fights. Let's just get into how both fighters performed and what they have on the horizon.
I thought Brandon Moreno looked a little more like himself in this fight then he did in the trilogy fight with Figueiredo. He was patient, but still aggressive enough that his volume was there. In that last fight, I thought he was getting sucked into a slower paced fight and relying on power shots instead of getting to what got him there. This time, he was back to his slick boxing and throwing his combinations at a pace that is much more natural to him. Part of me still feels like he has more volume in him. He has the cardio to fight at a high pace and his boxing is good enough to let his hands go. He has a good chin, so he shouldn't be too worried about leaving himself open. Not that he should be reckless, but I think he has the tools to push more of a pace with his volume striking and not just forward pressure. The judging for this fight was all over the place even though the general consensus on social media was that Moreno was winning, so luckily for Moreno, he was able to get the finish. Had that third round come to an end, he would have been down on 2 of the 3 scorecards. One judge already had him down 2-0 and one judge had it 1-1 and Kai was certainly winning the third round. Kai was starting to get his timing down in the third round and started landing his hands in a much more impactful way. He hit Moreno flush a few times and landed a really nice elbow on the ground that opened up a pretty nasty cut under Moreno's eye. After working back to his feet, Moreno didn't look like he had earlier and seemed a bit frazzled. He was trying to get back into the round and was bordering on reckless at times. He landed what initially seemed like a pretty benign body kick as Kai was backing out of range, but he snuck it just under Kai's elbow and landed it right on the lower portion of his rib cage. The impact effected Kai's liver and forced him to go to his knees. As the round was coming to an end, Moreno pounced on the opportunity and landed a flurry of ground and pound strikes that forced Herb Dean to step in and stop the fight. I thought this was the best version of Moreno that maybe we've ever seen. It was certainly the best he's been since he won the title initially. To see him continue to grow and able to start mixing in kicks more frequently is a great sign as well. I think starting to work with James Krause helped him a ton as well. This fight has me very excited to see him eventually attempt to unify these belts.
It goes without saying that Moreno will be fighting Figueiredo next. Joe Rogan seemed to believe that Figgy won't be returning to the flyweight division, despite Figueiredo saying that he is planning on coming back for awhile now. He's used the threat of moving up as a weird bargaining chip in the past, but I don't think anyone ever really thought it was any more than that. I'm not even really sure what Figgy's threat was because it doesn't make any sense. He said that if the UFC doesn't pay him more, then he's going to move up, but I don't really see why that would incentivize them to act. Anyways, since I expect Figgy to continue his career at 125 lbs, that is the clear fight for Moreno. This will be the fourth meeting between the two and I personally can't wait for it. These guys could fight 12 times and I would be excited for it every single time.
As for Kai Kara-France, you have to feel for the guy. I don't think he necessarily fought poorly, but he just struggled to really get going. More specifically, he just couldn't quite find the range to land any of his boxing combinations in those early rounds. He was landing his low kicks and landing them hard as well, but not too much more than that. He was still competing in both of those rounds and I admit that the second round was pretty close, but I still thought those were Moreno's rounds. He finally started to find the range in the third and was landing hard. He had Moreno a bit out of sorts for a stretch there and landed a great elbow that split Moreno's face open pretty badly. It looked like Kai was cruising the winning the round when Moreno landed the body kick that led to the finishing sequence. It was kind of an unfortunate way for the fight to end as it felt like it was really starting to pick up and that we were about to get a really fun last two rounds. However, the liver kick folded Kai and there was nothing he could do. It was either that night or a day after there was a still photo of Kai's ribs after he got back to his feet and the bruise left on his torso was pretty nasty looking. I can't even imagine the feeling of getting kicked hard enough in the ribs that it would leave me unable to stand and leave a mark like that.
Flyweight is always kind of weird to make fights for because it feels like the rankings never really change that much. Guys will shift one or two spots here and there, but there's not very many guys really shaking up the landscape of the division very often. That makes it hard to book fights sometimes just because so many of these fights have already happened. The easiest one to make is Kai vs Alex Perez. That checks a lot of boxes for what everyone would be looking for. They're both coming off of a loss, which we know the UFC likes to do when they can. It is probably the toughest fight that both fighters can get and would give them the easiest path towards getting back to a title shot. They also fought on the same card, so assuming they're healthy, their timelines for a return would line up perfectly. If that isn't the fight for whatever reason, I think Matheus Nicolau or Matt Schnell would be some guys who make sense. They are a bit farther down the rankings, but with Askar Askarov rumored to be fighting Brandon Royval, those are the only guys left at this juncture. I don't really think a fight with Alexandre Pantoja makes a ton of sense as Pantoja could just wait for a title shot and be completely justified in doing so. I'm kind of surprised he hasn't already gotten one. I would have done him and Moreno before the third Moreno vs Figgy fight, but that's just me. Kai vs Alex Perez is the fight to make in my opinion.
What do you guys think? What did you think of the fight? Did anything surprise you? Are you as excited for Moreno vs Figueiredo 4 as you were for the others? Who do you want to see next for Kai Kara-France? Leave any and all thoughts below. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
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