Brendan Fitzgerald and Alan Jouban preview the highly anticipated rematch between UFC flyweight champion Brandon Moreno …
[Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] title is on the line at UFC 290 in the co-main event in Las Vegas the champion Brandon Moreno looking to defend his belt against the Brazilian finisher alessandre Pantoja here for the preview on UFC breakdown as UFC veteran Alan joban and Allen Not only is this a great matchup with a title on the line these two have a long history between them from The Ultimate Fighter they fought in the Octagon before now there’s a title in pantosia has the past on Brandon Moreno but he has become an MMA Superstar yeah I mean these guys have a history with one another now you look at this title fight with Alexander pantosia this is his shot to try to get the belt he’s already got two wins over Moreno he’s a blitzing Style guy and he’s a guy that you do not want on your back he will take the bag and almost always seems to get the Finish now you look at Moreno he is a champ defending it he’s been in five title fights as of lately and Brandon he’s only been getting better and better capitalizing on his striking using his wrestling his well-rounded game terrific matchup we have set in store for us a couple of very well-rounded Fighters at 125 pounds with a lot on the line let’s go into fight focus and before we break down their respective skill sets we’ll go into a look at that history all the way back on the ultimate fighter again an exhibition fight but it took place nonetheless in 2016. what’d you notice when you go back through this one it was quite the fight great matchup in this one so we get into this fight and early on I want to start and show one thing right here so early on in guys careers you could see they evolve and they finesse and they polish things very good but one thing he doesn’t change is their natural movement they move a certain way they have something about them and that always stays with them the other thing that you normally see is like the first martial art that they learned if you’re if you’re a Muay Thai guy and you well-rounded your game you’re always going to kind of have that Muay Thai style it stays in your DNA you could see early on in this fight right away the flat-footedness from pantosia he’s very flat-footed pressure guy because he throws heavy punches on the other side of things you could see Moreno he’s got a little more bounce in his step he’s not so flat-footed and so that jumps off the page right away you see how they’re bouncing around inside the Octagon right away as well this is all things that we’re going to get to more and more and dissect as this show goes on but in this very first meeting years ago you could see right away pantosia using those blitches what we’re going to talk about he’s very good at these and Moreno having to be the evasive the counter fighter trying to circle out of danger and stay away try to not get taken down or get uh put his back on the fence so you can see early on they had these things in their DNA and they were using them well at this point they’ve perfected what they do but started off with that you can see that Moreno having to back up pantos you’re being the pressure fighter circling you see that left hook right there we’re going to talk a lot about the left hand from Moreno I believe that is his best weapon now you see when Moreno in this first fight starts to challenge pantosia this is something we’re going to talk about both Guys Moreno is a guy that he has that Mexican Fighting Spirit right and he’s a guy that loves to throw down but when you do that against somebody like pantosia it’s a bad idea because he’s somebody that loves to get in that kind of car wreck that head-on collision and he will never he will never stop he will never back away from a gunfight and so you see early on when Moreno presses the action watch pantosia how he reacts he wants to get right back he wants to get it back he’s the type of guy you see him calling it on saying to bring it pantosia is the type of guy in his DNA that if if you land a kick on me I’m gonna kick you back right away if you if you start pressing the pace I’m gonna outdo you he wants that he also always wants to be the hammer not the nail and he tries to prove that in this first match up with Moreno you’re seeing the early signs of it here so first round I actually think this round was Moreno’s best round he did very well in this matchup and he was striking very good he was being pretty evasive as he’s just saw using his left hand circling off the fence and this is probably in the two matchups that they’ve had the only round that I think Moreno won he did very well in this matchup in this early part of the fight pantosia’s second round now Pantoja knows this is an exhibition fightness in this one so it’s only two rounds Panthers knows he needs to create a momentum shift and this is what he does he steals people’s momentum and he presses forward he becomes that hammer that I talked about so you start to see a little bit of this in this second round you can see pantosia pressing forward he wants to get it back again right he’s coming forward now right here he’s pressing blitzing I’m gonna get into a lot of this later but again this blitzing style do you see how he’s leaning forward putting everything into shots Moreno is backing up circling out he wants to hit wants to win every one of these uh positions like this so again pressing forward now watch the circle out right here Moreno’s circling out trying to stay out of danger but he circles too big and in the first round everything that was a blitz that finished with the kick for pantosia he finished with a low kick so you see a little bit of complacency from Moreno’s side because he’s thinking another low kicks coming but instead it was a high kick and this high kick proved to be a big shot in the fight that one right there because it ended up swelling up his eye pretty bad you see it in the fight his eyes pretty messed up and that was the beginning of the momentum shift right here so Moreno said she utilized some of his wrestling which he has very good wrestling problem with it is the scramble ability from pantosia it’s hard to keep him down so Moreno utilizes the wrestling gets to take down and watch she’s going to work stay with it get a big lift get a big dump fantastic you hear uh benavidez in a corner who’s Corner Moreno on this one they’re cheering they love this moment again the problem with it is already you can see pantosia inserting that knee Shield to keep him off he’s pushing on the head he’s pushing away he never really settles for a position on his back that’s pantosia and so when wrestlers say I’m gonna exert a bunch of energy and do a big move and exert it they want the reward of laying on top of you right so they can recover but pantosia does not let you recover you see I’m Gonna Roll it right here now watch this Moreno is still having to work he’s not getting to relax he’s actually doing all the work because he’s trying to pressure pressure while pantosia is right here he’s framing with the arm he’s framing with the knee and then he’s gonna start doing damage planting elbows and Landing shots kind of beating Moreno up after that they got back up they had some more exchanges but I think that that shot not getting to rest it did something to Moreno it got him a little bit fatigued and you can see it here his mouthpiece comes out right before you see the shot coming you see Moreno’s mouth look these guys are fighting hard they’re young in their career but he’s breathing with his mouth open right this is a guy though that you think about Moreno he never gets tired think about all the title fights that he was in with figuredo and all that five round Wars never gets tired going to the last spell this is the second round so this is a point in his career where he hadn’t figured out how to unlock that next level of fighting so this to me was a a key moment in his career where he’s probably looked back on this fight one day or or after this fight rather and said I have to approve improve I have to evolve if I’m going to be a five-round champion I have to change something he gets taken down fatigue the mouthpiece comes out right there we’ll go back to that later you can see pantosia sensing that he’s down Moreno he’s still just trying to survive his mouthpiece is out right now still he’s getting elbowed he’s getting need he’s taking a bunch of damage and he’s slowly kind of losing that momentum that that will to fight you see the knee right there on the break we’ll go back to that later he’s got a very good knee all right this is the point of the fight Brennan that it almost the first time I rewatch this it almost bothered me it did because you think I’m a Moreno and you think of a guy that has that Mexican Fighting Spirit you know the guy that just will fight to the death but the life seemed to be sucked out of him at this point watch how he takes his mouthpiece watch your body language he’s looking at it he’s trying to figure it out watch this ready you see the swaying motion and what I gathered from that that he he had a moment right there uh he didn’t have the confidence he didn’t have he was probably thinking to himself is this is this going to be the fight that I get that I lose this is the fight that I get my first finish and my teeth something was going on right there and he didn’t have a moment of confidence that was happening and pantosia picked up on that and if you give him any sort of weakness pantosia a nail a hammer the guy that loves to go and pressure and steal momentum he will sap that he will absorb that he’ll take that and he does just that he gets in his face right away perfect time to make a level change shoot a takedown Moreno tired makes a mistake misses the sprawl gets his back taken and as we’re going to show you throughout the course of this show you cannot let pain towards you take your back it’s very much you’re gonna hear me say algerman Sterling quite a bit during this show because it’s the same thing backpack body lock hand fight right here high percentage finish seven rear naked choke finishes for pantosia even though Moreno is very good at the back as well six redneck and truck finishes pantosia seems to be the guy that’s just simply better at it that was the first fight that Moreno has ever been finished I was an exhibition so it doesn’t go on his record but you look at these two guys pantosia never been finished professional career in that exhibition never been finished but that’s got to seep down in his heart doesn’t Reynolds say right this guy handed me that loss he also finished me at what I’m good at he’s a he’s a real naked show guy as well but he got finished there that was a I promise you I’d love to sit down and talk to him right now and say was that a turning point in your career when you had that moment where you you seem like you you weren’t quite there right what changed I’d love to talk to him about it one day of course moving on that was seven long years ago and a lot can change in seven years certainly for Brandon Moreno it has fight number two uh came in May of 2018 in Santiago Chile when they recycled around and they fought in the UFC unofficial about not an exhibition would you notice in fight number two so fight number two this one did not go Brandon Moreno’s way but we started seeing small improvements upon it the problem with this fight was he made some mistakes I like that he’s shooting the wrestling right here Brandon Moreno in my opinion is the better wrestler when it comes to the wrestles The scrambles and the back takings are a different story but getting in on the takedown is of Moreno’s very good at it we’re going to see right here gets his hands together class them and watch she’s just going to elevate right here going to use his hips to elevate his opponent up in the air and then right here just gonna tap the knee you elevate him tap the knee throws you over beautiful takedown again when you take down pantosia it becomes how long can I keep him down so we’ll watch gets the takedown immediately pantosia has this gift of just getting back right here look how he avoids getting his back taken again circles back up once again like in the first fight wasn’t a tremendous amount of work but Moreno level change explode picked up a grown man dumped him on his head went for the scramble didn’t get it gets back to his feet now I gotta fight this guy again that keeps coming forward he doesn’t get rewarded for his actions that’s what’s tough about fighting this guy pantosia doesn’t reward you for your hard work it makes people slowly die down you see that left hook right there Brandon Rhino by the way he’s so good his left hand we’re going to show you guys we’re going to dissect this uh later but he uses that left hand good in this fight and finds some success on it um but he’s just not able to capitalize fully there’s the Java pantosia another one of his very good weapons that hurt his eye so pivotal point this is the first round bit of a little bit of an exchange right there but whatever happened Moreno made a mistake he lost his balance and he ends up on the ground he avoided that head kick thank God he made a mistake though right and you know anything could happen in these type of fights but you can’t make mistakes against somebody as good as pantosia because when you go to the ground a lot of times against pantosia you just don’t get back up and you can’t not only not get back up to win fights but you risk getting your back taken against a specialist he made that small mistake goes to the ground there was a lot of ground upon he didn’t get it for quite a while you could see the damage on his face be covered because of it again gets his back taken again this ends up going to the Bell Moreno survives but you could see how much damage was taken on there and this ended up being a 10-8 round very bad round for him because and it’s not like he made a a mistake as much as he has to be perfect when he fights pantosia it’s like walking on a tightrope you cannot make one single slip otherwise it’s over he’s that good he’s that strong at taking the back and finishing fights so as I said attending around another thing about these two matching up is see the blood you see the wear and tear Moreno wears damage not as well as pantosia you know he’s more fairly complected he also swells more so every one of pantos’s shots which are more powerful through significant amounts of damage to Moreno it shows to the judges it’s it’s they see that where pantosia wears it very well even when he takes a lot of shots he still comes out of fights very clean so it’s just something to keep in mind moving forward Moreno needs to know I can’t eat shots even if I’m damaging him as well hurting him it’s it’s going to show the wear and tear on his face it’s not going to look good for the judges if he’s bleeding and his eyes are swollen but he survives around 10-8 round pantosia won that one Moreno’s got to start stepping on the gas right here so he’s making efforts to do it getting back into that Mexican boxing style but again the blitzes the forward pressure as soon as you start showing a sense of urgency you start seeing the retaliation from pantosia he just he doesn’t want you to feel like you can never win final round Moreno’s trying to get something going look at this this is a great time to freeze it you take down pantosia and there’s nothing there’s no reward and it’s got to be it’s got to be so disheartening when you make that effort to level change and scoop somebody up and this is what happens it’s he’s so gifted I think it’s just a natural thing he’s very good in Jiu Jitsu but he’s got this scramble ability well look he’s taken down right there single leg immediately watch his feet he’s going to find a way to get his feet on the hips and Elevate Moreno and just shuck him off I mean there’s no reward for Moreno every time he tries to land a takedown now it’s back in his face the pressure Begins the gunfight begins and that’s where he excels right he wants to come forward so when these guys are standing toe-to-toe trying to fight for the Bell Moreno’s Landing he just laying there right there but pantosia doesn’t even skip a beat he’s okay being in the fire he’s fine with it because he knows I’m willing to take one shot to land one shot he’s one of those type of guys he’s stubborn but he’s also efficient at it because he wins those Wars so Moreno just landed a nice punch but watch pan told you you see the impact the difference when Moreno landed on pantosia it didn’t stunt it didn’t stop his combination but it had a much bigger effect especially in the eyes of the judges when pantosia lands on Moreno and so these are the the problems that Moreno has to figure out but these are the things that he has going for him and again there it is he wants to be in a dog fight if you’re going to try to posture on me and I’m pantosia I’m gonna try to give it back to you these guys standing toe-to-toe and and then they’re just going for it let me just back this up one second this again in these type of dog fight shootouts you’re gonna see this a lot pantosia he’s leaning he’s he’s it’s always forward momentum it’s always weight down full power extension everything in these punches where everyone he goes against they have to back up you see you see Moreno is leaning back it’s like you can’t stand in a fire for so long you put your finger in the fire you take it out pantosha stands in the fire and he’s fine with it he’s gotten so good at that he wins these type of battles so he’s fine with this all day Moreno has to start finding ways to cut cut little angles to cut little corners and make them pay not standing in the fire boom these guys go through it they swing to the Bell but this is probably a fight that pantos are probably won every round but you can start seeing small calculated changes on the side of Moreno so two nothing uh unofficially one nothing right for uh for pantosia because of the official fight in 2018 but of course again it’s been five years since then so now we’ll kind of dive into the skill sets of each and we’ll start with the champion Brandon Moreno who has evolved Leaps and Bounds and you think about all that’s happened since that last fight with pantos he’s been out of the UFC goes back into the UFC all of these epic title fights with Davis and figuerado and kaikara France let’s start with the Striking of Brandon Moreno because I think he probably leans on that boxing yeah since their first two fights the Striking from Brandon Moreno has significantly evolved the left side is what I want to focus on he’s got a lot of left punches the the jab the hook the uppercut that he does very well in those kicks as well you’ll see Moreno’s the type of guy that reminds me of um some some Fighters or one dominant hand in the change their stance to use that dominant hand in a way and it almost makes me think that Moreno’s the type of guy that is dominant left hand because he fights Orthodox but he’s so good with that left side because he throws it from so many angles as we’re going to see him we’re gonna break down here so you see he’s throwing a lot of left hooks a lot of left kicks he’ll go to the body he’ll double up on it it doesn’t have to be a wide knockout punch it could sometimes just be a short hook that is going to land and just steers your opponent as they say walking a dog I just want to steer you where I want you and make you pay while I’m doing that and you see Moreno added that into his game as well with the diversity of left side attack you see that and it’s almost like a little shovel hook they call it where it’s a mix between a hook and an uppercut but he loves that left side he loves to just go to it right here again he gets into range nice little he didn’t really even have to chamber it all the way like a lot of guys would do it was just halfway Chambers and he just throws it really quick it’s just it’s off the hit you know it just shoots off the hip very fast with that left side and he’s gotten very good at it you see right there he’s also utilizing that left side jab figurado throws the kick he does this move very well so if the Kick’s thrown and you can block it you always want to try to use the forehand right here to sweep it like a windshield wiper motion but you can also use it the counter as well and he’s going to use that same side hand left hand re-chambered it and what he did on this one he turned it over hit the knuckle in the eye figured oh figuerado wasn’t able to continue after this the fight ended up being stopped his eye was swollen and he ended up retaining the belt again in this fight but left side dominant and the one thing you can’t sleep on are the kicks as well he utilizes the hands gets you thinking about those you know throw those kicks up in the air as well again fantastic striking he’s polished it so much over the years and he’s got diversity in the attacks on that side as well when we looked at their history between these two fighters you talked a lot about the aggression of pantosia and how he just hits harder and he’s comfortable in the fire and so that leads to him blitzing forward and not being afraid of what’s coming back at him the blitz is pantosia is a guy that he he he dares you to to fight him he dares you to come into the fire as I keep saying and and he wants you to challenge him because he feels he has the history too to do this that he will win these exchanges and he will Blitz suit and if if you’re imp if he’s impatient and you’re not doing it at once he’ll just come after you and he uses these blitzing attacks to not only cover distance and do damage or the Striking but he uses them to also find a way to the back so it works well for him the blitz to do damage because he’s kind of an impatient fighter at times but he also if his end goal is to get the backpack a blitz is aggress a great way to create a collision right and then see what happens there so we’ll see that in his approach in here this is his striking approach right much different Moreno more bouncy right left side dominant now we get into pantosia right he’s a little bit more flat-footed everything is thrown with power everything is fight ending type punches he’s not looking to touch touch he’s looking to close distance here and puts you against the fence in this case he was able to drop him right here Matt Schnell so a lot of guys aren’t used to somebody pressuring this much and so what happens with Matt no mistake of his but he’s getting pressured so he decides to do the same thing look plants his feet both guys have their feet planted both guys are about to just go and start swinging for the fences right here but Moreno I’m sorry pantosia rather he wins these exchanges and so guys they have to start backing up you’ll see eventually pantosia never takes a single step backwards and even after Schnell tried to stand toe-to-toe he had to eventually fade back this is the beginning of this fight these guys are going toe-to-toe again you can see right away who’s backing up who’s coming forward this is his style he will not back down it’s like a it’s a prideful thing it’s that Brazilian grit and it’s almost like a stubborn good quality that he has because he’s gotten away with it he wins he’s exchanges he hits hard he’s got a granite chin never even finished and he doesn’t show damage so why not go Toe to Toe and say look I’m a high percentage at these type of fire fights you want to get into it with me you’re probably going to make a mistake and so he calls his guys to fight back and they make mistakes I mean he’s they’re either getting hit they’re getting dropped or the collisions are allowing him to get into the best position possible for him to finish fight with their rear naked choke all because of the Bliss of pantosia he’s not just a tough guy when in terms of his aggression at you he’s also a finisher on the other side if he does decide to stay disciplined though perhaps working behind a good old-fashioned Jam might serve him well against a guy like Moreno who’s improved in the Striking Department as we’ve shown why not right I mean everybody says you gotta have a jab the jab sets up everything a jab and a five round fight could be essential because in a war of attrition a fight where you’re going to be exhausted let me say I don’t know if there’s going to be a finish in this fight when I look at these two guys never been finished the only finish she’s ever had was in an exhibition from this guy he’s made changes this is likely going to be a 25 minute War you can’t Blitz every time if I Blitz every time I’m exerting too much energy the championship rounds I got no more in the gas tank right you got to find a way to jab now and then so I’m gonna break down pantosia has two different Jabs that he likes to rely on a lot of them is this the one two he has a very push-pull style he’ll put the jab out there pop you but it’s really to retract it and to sit down on the right hand one two one two he carries a lot of power in their right hand when he decides to commit on that one too there’s almost like a mini Blitz right there but he’s coming for the jab is setting it up in a 25 minute fight even these can take a little bit of energy out of you if you throw in a big right hand every time so what I’d like to see out of him is him very up his attack with just a normal jab just pop the jab out and retract it back and continue in your stance doesn’t take a lot of energy the jab is the easiest punch to throw in terms of uh amount of energy being expended it’s easy you throw it out there you bring it back this one he hit Brandon Moreno in the eye did a little damage had him backing up now watch these adjustment that pantosia makes in this one very different look right now right now he’s he’s boxing like Brandon Moreno now it’s a boxing style there’s no more blitzes it’s no more one two Knockouts knockout punches it’s throwing a jab and retract me throwing a jab you saw how he threw the jab out and immediately when the counter was coming back he moved his head out of the way right this is this is the type of fighting that allows you to fight competitively for 25 minutes and then you have your moments you sprinkle in the blisters you sprinkle in just scrambles and back attacks but if you can get behind this jab it’s going to show a whole new look from pantosia that Moreno really hasn’t seen that much he’s seen it now in this fight and believe me you Moreno’s taking notes that he has that ability to do this will he do this in a 25 minute fight I don’t know but I would like to see him do it if he wants to have a chance of looking strong in his later rounds but he’s got that type of jab he’ll pressure you with the jab right hand or you can pop in and out to have a jab as well earlier you mentioned that Brandon Moreno probably the better wrestler that’s not to say better ground fighter altogether but in the wrestling Department of changing levels getting takedowns how might he utilize that against pantosia as we’ve seen he’s very tough to keep down once you get him down I agree it reminds me of the matchup that we did here with Henry suhuto versus Alger mean Sterling Henry Huda was a better wrestler but aljo was the better Matt Grappler right aljo’s the backpack guy that gets takedowns and scrambles sojudo was a better wrestler and although uh Moreno is terrific on the back he’s not quite as good at just finishing on the back as pantosia but he is the better wrestler he’s got that wrestling and if he could utilize this and be able to hold down pantoshi that’s going to pay dividends on a fight this is somebody very much like pantojo blitzing forward right he’s probably gonna find his back against the fence at some point is Moreno he’s probably going to see pantosier pressing the action with these crazy blitzes this is the perfect opportunity to do this exact takedown try to stay out of the line of fire quick little level change right here and get your hands together get that body lock now pay attention to this he does so good at completing this head on the outside easiest way to finish it and he’s going to just take his body and create a little bit of an angle and circle off to the side to complete this and so my best example is if if me and you were pushing each other right now forward it would be like a push-pull nothing would ever go anywhere but if I was able to get a small angle and push you 45 degrees you’re a little bit more off balance right same thing in a wrestling Department he pokes his head out the side and if he tries to run backwards he’s not going to do what’s good but if he could run at a bit of a 45 degree angle maybe tap the knee it’s gonna it’s it’s significantly gonna help him get the finish right here he does just that body lock take down little knee strip it all started off of the blitz something that we might see in the fight against pantosia so again getting pressured does a nice little defense right here look almost has his back taken another thing that we’re gonna see scrambles back takes by pantosia does a very good a job on this one not allowing his back to be taken and circling into it so right here you can see he’s using his foot if his foot wasn’t there then you might see figure rados circle around and take the back but the foot’s helping prevent that the hand fighting is going on right here he’s doing all the right things and he’s also not allowing the back to be taken because he’s trying to turn into him belly to belly he’s going the right direction you see it’s kind of a game of cat and mouse and then he was able to finish it he goes from a bad position to a good position all from his wrestling he’s got terrific offensive and defensive wrestling and then if he’s going up against a striker like this he can be the more dominant wrestler take a little chance put his head on the outside right here he’s not really worried about the threat in the guillotine for this matchup and just the traditional get the hands together Elevate get the dump right here and again on this in this fight he’s winning the battle because he’s got his hips heavy right here hips are heavy and he’s he’s stuffing the heel to the butt right here if if you allow your opponent to have to heal far up in the air then you can manipulate your hips and you’re not going to sit down that’s what I showed you earlier that pantosia does when Moreno took him down pantosia was was playing with his hips like that with his foot right here he’s winning that battle he’s able to get rewarded for the takedown to stay on top which is very very good at now I would argue that you cannot fight for a 125 pound title in the UFC without being an A plus in the scramble yeah right it is a necessity in this weight class to be great on the ground we’ll start with alessandre pantosia obviously when things get heated and uh spinning around down on the mat you need your A game and pantosia certainly has that I like how you set that up I mean at this weight class you have to be good at everything right you got to be fast you have to be good in every aspect 125 pound guys nothing is guaranteed you get a takedown guys pop right back up so what happens the scrambles is what it turns into it’s not a 265 pound man it’s a much lighter man pantosia has a gift look and he is a terrific Jiu Jitsu black belt and his finishes are amazing but I almost feel like this is this there’s some of these these scrambles that he has you can’t really teach us you can’t go to jiu jitsu class and say show me the technique of getting out of every time somebody has my back and you take their back as well he’s gifted he just knows he feels the pressure and he’s able to find where the pressure’s not and explodes into it and so you see him here in this fight he’s got his back taken he’s in worst case scenario the only thing that’s that’s keeping him alive is his opponent doesn’t have this hook in this heel should be in here obviously and have the hooks in so he’s okay he has a backpack right now but he wants to prevent this heal from getting in otherwise his opponent’s gonna have the back locked in so watch what he does he starts elevating the hips getting his opponent a little too high a little too heavy now watch this little sneaky move right here you see what he’s doing with his hand he’s preventing his opponent from throwing the hook in and he’s got a hold of his ankle he’s just shucking him off so not only is he kind of getting his opponent top heavy the point is getting a little bit too high you hear that on the broadcast all the time but he’s a bit High he’s a bit high that means he’s falling off he’s too high he should be more over here but he’s his the the center of his weight is a bit too high on pantosia’s back so pantosia is going to take that heel and just kind of shake it off now watch where he goes look at his scramble he goes from back take to sweep to back take I mean the guy goes from the worst case scenario the best case scenario all within a scramble and this is why his gift that’s why I said you can’t really teach this stuff this isn’t specific technique as much as she’s just knowing where the out is knowing where the out is again has his back taken it again right here doing a very good job of staying on top and he’s just using this knee right here this could be a possible knee bar but he’s not really using it as a kneeboard he’s just using it to not allow his opponent to put his foot down at this point his opponent feels like the back take is done he’s too low see how he’s low so his opponent wants to put his foot down and explode up and get on top pantoge is aware of it he’s preventing That Base taking that bass away in his opponent stays on top he’s just trying to get this leg free right here and then this underhook keeps the underhook in shimmies his hips goes and again goes from having his bag taken to taking somebody else’s back it’s it’s a beautiful thing to watch and it’s something that a lot of Fighters wish that they had as well I mean it’s just a talent right here another scramble this is very algerman Sterling I know I’ve said his name five times already but it’s very agile it doesn’t really matter if you take me down because I’m so comfortable in the chaos of the scramble that I feel confident that’ll be able to find the light at the end of it look at this inverted goes finds his way on top gets it from a bad position to a good position so it’s you almost have to think about the risk versus reward with with pantosia do I want to try to take him down because a do I want to exert that much energy if he pops back up or B if I take him down will he end up taking my back as well it puts fear in the eyes of his opponents so Brandon Moreno certainly knows this and you got to think that he’s going to study the film and he’ll be well equipped because he knows the scrambles are inevitable so when it comes to positions that he may find himself in how do you expect him to try to work out of him he might have to be scrambling as well right so we’re going to see Brandon Moreno it’s it’s such an evenly matched fight these guys have so many things that they both do well it’s just splitting hairs that one guy’s a little bit stronger in this area or that area that’s why this fight is really such a chess match they’ve they’ve fought before they’ve made adjustments now it’s a chess match in this game and Brandon Moreno is a guy that he’s been in bad situations he’s had his bag taken he’ll probably be in the same position against pantosia in a fight for him let’s hope let’s hope not but if he finds himself in his position he needs to make all the right decisions and you saw on the previous one his opponent is getting a little high again we just we just talked about the opponent is getting a little bit high he doesn’t want to have his weight falling over but that’s caused because Moreno postured his butt up and he’s causing his opponent his momentum to go this way so doing the first thing and and when we showed pantosia’s defense remember he he stopped the leg he was stopping those hooks his opponent already has the hooks in so Moreno says you know what he doesn’t have his hands together his hands are loose I can’t do anything about the oh but I could fight the hands so he takes a different approach Moreno decides let me fight the hands right here and explode he goes from a bad position to a good position from these scrambles we see it here again that was a bit of a mistake for Moreno had his back taken on the shot right now but he’s going to continue to work through it rolls to the kneeboard finds an opening uses the mat gets belly to belly in there from having his back taken so he knows how to get out of these positions it’s just I don’t I wouldn’t want to play with danger I wouldn’t want to go into the positions against one of the best in the world like pantosia but his scramble ability will allow him to survive okay this is the one that it’s just a joy to watch just scramble right here this one was rememberable remember when these guys fought you’re gonna see Moreno shoots in he’s the aggressor on this one uh figuerado is able to stuff this takedown or he gets taken down rather but he’s able to sweep back you see this he shoots in and the reason that figuredo is able to survive not a takedown yet he’s almost there but free goes figuredo’s butt is not on the mat figure beta is going to take his right under hook his right hand and get that underhook on Moreno and that’s going to allow him to sweep him right here back to his feet now Mourinho stays with it I mean he could he could be on his back and say all right let me just work guard let me work on maybe getting up or this or that but he goes to the tripod sweep and this is a move that they teach you early on in Jiu Jitsu really but you don’t see it utilizing MMA that often and when I saw this I I was really a joy to watch because not only did he go for it but he completes it beautifully he’s going to take his right arm he’s going to block the movement of figuredo’s legs so if he’s gonna use this leg right now to push on the hips a figuredo he’s taking figuredo and kicking him this way but he’s preventing him from stepping back and lastly he’s going to take this inside leg and just hook it around so he’s shutting off the backwards movement of both of these legs and kicking his hips and he gets a beautiful little tripod to eat ends up on top scrambles gets in a guillotine position he survived that it was good but it was all that scramble ability to keep things going this fight right here Lewis Smoke Gets on this inside single now watch this smokers thinking I’m gonna go head outside I’m gonna go to High crotch he’s inside now he makes that adjustment outside right away though Moreno does a good job so this is the attempt Lewis smoker as soon as you see him lift his head up like this he’s thinking High crotch he’s got his hands near the crotch area he’s going to explode up and his goal is to throw him up in the air and dumping him as well we see DC does it to everybody that’s the goal Moreno though he knows what’s going on he’s got his butt down he’s got his hips the weight down and already you can see he’s using that arm right there to try to sneak into Guillotine so smoker thinks he’s getting a takedown Moreno defends it and you can see he ends up locking up a guillotine on him trying to get the right shots I can show you guys there we go so this is a no arm in you can see the grip right here is a nice shot of it no more men a lot of times it’s an arm in Guillotine if you can get the norm in I mean it’s death once we have nothing no shoulder to help stop it he’s got the no arm in and what he does is he makes a good adjustment he goes High elbows so The Guillotines are Guillotine what a lot of times they do is they’ll start pulling this arm that’s helping uh to cinch it up so guys go high elbow so they take this elbow and they bring it out here and then what they do is they start pulling it so it’s essentially pulling this arm tighter making the airway where your neck is Tighter and then his elbows getting out of place so it’s harder to grab so you see right here he’s going high elbow he’s got the guillotine matched up locked up and he just starts cranking it gets on top right here which is death ends up finished with that high elbow right there created from the scrambles the wrestling the style they never give up the grappling from Moreno that was the famous speech when he said one day I will be a champion Maybe not today maybe not tomorrow that was after the UFC debut against Lewis that was beautiful yes all right time for X factors because obviously there’s uh something that you can’t always put your finger on in terms of how a fighter is going to win a championship we’ll start with alessandre Pantoja what is The X Factor for him to at long last get the flyweight belts so with pantosia I’ve got to go with the back taking ability the the way that he’s able to finish fights so good again is very Alger mean Sterling like and I can’t I can’t say it enough because it’s the thing that you have to avoid at all costs you can you would rather be in a full amount taking damage than give up your back you cannot throw a head kick in the air and slip and have him take your back because he is so good and if pantosia takes your back you now have to be perfect and it’s going to be the longest five minutes of your life if you find yourself in a position but there’s ways to stay alive and it as I said earlier don’t find yourself in a position hey if you find yourself in that position protect everything at all costs that’s trying to choke you these are the mistakes that you have to avoid with the X Factor style of back taking a pantosia if you’re in the mount you have to just write it out you need to just say you know what I’m going to take the damage I made a mistake I’m gonna try to survive this round and I can go back to my corner and reset and we’re gonna start on the feed again and give myself another opportunity to win but if you have pantosia on you and you say know what I don’t like this I feel like he’s about to start raining down elbows and punches I’m gonna give up my back then you’ve given up the fight and so you see right here against his opponent gives up the back position what you see this sometimes in fights some guys say I’m gonna I’ll give up the back because I don’t want to take damage but not against pantosia you can’t do that against a guy that is so high percentage at finishing it right there he’s able to take the bag or the back was given up it was a mistake but those are freebies for him you see he’s what she’s gonna do locks the legs up body lock we see that now the rest of it this is locked up and he does this so well he’s going to use the body lock right here and again he puts his foot right here and the foot not only is throwing the weight of his opponent this way it’s keeping him locked down it’s kind of keeping his hips off balance right so this is already done now pantos doesn’t even need to think about this anymore because it’s locked in with the body lock now it becomes a small hand battle the legs are doing one thing this is the battle now it’s all upstairs and he is so buy the book or I say by the book he’s so one step at a time he will beat you one step at a time so there’s a a big hand entanglement going on right what he’s looking to do is just get one arm around the throat and get to the shoulder the shoulder locks it all in place then I he could think about less hands to watch you can see right here Pinto’s just grinding his hands across the face he’s gonna shut down the grip and he’s looking to grab the shoulder boom now he’s locked in and so that’s all he wanted if I if he can grab the shoulder now this is locked into place this is locked into place this is locked in everything is locked in now the only battle that’s still left in this fight before is dead is this pantosia now has to get this one hand free right that’s what’s that’s what’s keeping his opponent alive now he’s going to be Wing Chung shimmy and whatever because this is locked he just has to get those hands together so you see he’s already halfway there he just becomes can I get the hand out watch just it becomes a game of like cat Mouse that was locked in the position he’s gonna get you when he gets here he’ll squeeze with everything he has and he’ll hold it for a long time A lot of times in Jiu Jitsu they say squeeze for about 10 seconds countdown to ten after that you’re gonna burn your arms out pantoshi will stay there for a minute he’ll stay there and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze he’s got that kind of strength the other thing Brandon that I wanted to mention you can’t make the mistake of giving up your back and you have to always fight what’s trying to kill you right here his opponent in a good position right his opponent’s on top no need to worry pantosia scramble ability watch always gonna go inverted again grab the leg boom finds his way to the back that kind of thing you can’t really teach yeah that is somewhat of a move but it’s hard it’s hard to do man and he does it on the fly in fights it’s it’s natural for him now as we continue to watch this fight he’s good he’s good right here he’s fighting the hands that’s what you should be doing work stay alive and then try to use your lower body to get the feet out he makes a mistake Brandon he starts trying to throw these little punches like that and you know that’s that’s not going to end the fight you’re not going to knock your opponent out you’re probably not going to cut him you’re not even going to hurt him you’re probably just gonna make him mad but he takes his hand off of the choking arm to punch his opponent and look what happens he frees it up I mean he was waiting for that he was probably giving him his face if you’re fighting a dangerous guy you got to be aware of everything you have to stay perfect against pantosia if he takes your back probably gonna be a rep well for Brandon Moreno he’s got the belt he kind of exercised the demon by putting away Davis and figuerado and now he’s you know on a big stage once again an international fight week it’s his show MMA fans love him what’s the X Factor for him to stay the champion of the Flyway Division I think in this matchup right here what he needs to do is it’s his championship experience right it’s experience he’s been here before he’s got so much knowledge and we’ve seen him make adjustments and so I think that’s what’s going to get him to the promised land aside from everything else that we’re breaking down that experience of knowing how to make adjustments in his previous fight so we set this one up you see this is kaikoura front this is their first fight with one another right and in this fight you see him finishing he loves that left side we brought it up but he’s finishing right here early in this fight he’s finishing high right which is no problem but he’s going for the head kick he’s going for the lights out to shut off the switch and so this is good with Carl France is blocking it but what they did realize is that when Brandon Moreno went back and watched us is that he was blocking high and leaving the body open [Music] and so he learned there was openings in there and he was throwing them but he just couldn’t quite get the finish in it he was doing very good and he won this fight but again he was finishing high now we go to the second fight where he was able to retain his title right and this is rematch this is Championship experience like was speaking about he’s so good in his rematches and learning now that he’s on this level so in this fight he decides let me started mixing up my levels instead of going high every time watch where he goes in this one so it’s going body Now France is like I got to play this game of living here and then going 20 block 20 block 20 block because if he goes 50 Block it’s exposing too much right so now he’s get the guessing game now he’s leading the dance again right this is an adjustment that he made from having experience body again now watch how he changes it up in this one he’s going to finish his combination he’s going to go real high he’s going to get Carl France guessing where are these kicks coming from immediately after that kick that head kick I heard his Corner screaming Now’s the Time go to the body go to the body they recognize it they knew from the last fight the body was a Target he had set the pattern body head body head his last kick was to the Head this exchange comes right here he’s able to sing a leg out spinning back fists Now watch how he finishes this a little bit of a blitz left kick to the liver shut you down it’s so hard to recover from these especially when somebody pounces on you because it takes about 30 seconds for you to really get that strength back but it was set up Mourinho made these adjustments in these fights he’s gonna have to make a big adjustment in this next fight as well well you mentioned the championship experience and also the five round experience for Brandon Moreno has been scheduled for and fought five rounds multiple times pantosha mostly in three round fights for his UFC career now to summarize what you just broke down by X’s and O’s we go to keys to Victory as we uh go through the three big points and we’ll start with the champion okay so Moreno needs to use angles to avoid the blades in this fight he needs to stay off of the fence but he needs to find slight angles right adjustments that Blitz comes he angles out he works his box in small angles they don’t open up to eat big kicks but gets him out of the line of fire that moving train that is pantosia also strategically utilize that left hand I told you that’s his dominant one and when I say strategically I showed you he’s got a jab he’s got a hook he’s got an uppercut if he can strategically place those left shots he can start finding areas to take the openings against Fantasia instead of busting him up last one no mistake easier said than done easier said than done he needs to get behind the jab the hooks the uppercuts needs a circle out of those blitzes if the scrambles come you do not let the bag get taken if the bag gets taken it’s fight for my life it doesn’t matter if it’s five minutes I’m not giving it up if I get mounted don’t give up the back he’s got to be perfect no mistakes 25 minutes hit that uh Arrow right there as we switch it over to pantosia what are the keys to Victory he’s trying to get this belt for a long time finally he’s got his chance and he’s the guy to do it right he’s the only man that’s beating him twice like this I mean he he he’s the only guy that has finished Moreno he’s got the capability he’s got the momentum right now if he can get Moreno’s face and get those blitzes going and get him backing up he’s going to call them to make them safe those blitzes cause a mistakes so get behind those blitzes in that jab pop the jab in and out movement Blitz two or three times around assert your dominance also we know what’s going to happen find the back he’s so good at scrambling he’s so good at finding the bag once he gets the bag it’s normally a wrap he needs to create those a lot of those come from the blitzes so utilize those blitzes create these core wrecks find your way into the back where you’re one of the best guys in the world of finishing with the RNC lastly on this one make it a dog fight when he makes things a dog fight he gets people to trade and he wins those trading exchanges he he handles punches better than Moreno it doesn’t show as much he’s got more power than Moreno get into a dog fight make Moreno fight your fight and if you either knock him out or you get him to the ground you take the back whatever it is he needs to challenge Moreno’s pride and say look you’re a Mexican Fighting style you have that that machismo come and test me right here in the middle of the Octagon because he doesn’t want Moreno to be sticking and moving for 25 minutes that’s not going to help him make it a dog fight that’s how pantosia could probably see the belt around his waist no question alessandre Pantoja has been at the top of the flyweight division for quite a while but he’s had to come to wait out the Epic Saga that was Moreno and figueredo and kaikar Francis gotten his title opportunities alessandre Pantoja has the chance to give Brazil a flyweight Champion or will it be Brandon Moreno continuing to be an MMA superstar in one of the UFC’s biggest stars from Mexico and retained his title for Alan joban I’m Brendan Fitzgerald it’s the co-main event at UFC 290 in Vegas enjoy the fight we’ll see you next time 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