Brandon Moreno to defend Flyweight Championship against Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 290

Photo Courtesy: UFC

Brandon Moreno will look to score his first win over Alexandre Pantoja as he defends his UFC Flyweight Championship at UFC 290 in July.

The pair have a history, with Pantoja having two wins over the champion, although five years have passed since they last met in the octagon. The first fight was a submission win for Pantoja in an unofficial bout on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ in 2016. Two years later, Pantoja defeated Moreno by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 129.

The fight was confirmed to ESPN’s Marc Raimondi by UFC Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell after it was unofficially reported on the Instagram account Freak MMA.

The bout is expected to be the co-main event of the UFC 290 card, which is scheduled for July 8th in Las Vegas. The event is currently expected to be headlined by a unification contest between Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski and Interim Champion Yair Rodriguez.

Moreno is 7-1-2 in his last 10 fights and became a two-time UFC Flyweight Champion after his third-round TKO win over Deiveson Figueiredo in January.

Brazilian-born Pantoja has won his last three fights, with the most recent being a first-round submission win over Alex Perez at UFC 270 in July 2022.

About Neal Flanagan 989 Articles
Based in Northern Ireland, Neal Flanagan is a former newspaper journalist and copy editor. In addition to reporting for POST Wrestling, he co-hosts The Wellness Policy podcast with Wai Ting and Jordan Goodman.