Brandon Moreno will stick to fighting familiar faces.
The former UFC Flyweight Champion was originally slated to fight rising contender Amir Albazi in the main event of UFC Mexico City on Feb. 24. But, that won't be the case as Albazi has ultimately pulled out from the five-round bout.
"I have been dealing with a serious neck injury the past weeks," Albazi wrote on X regarding his withdrawal. "After some scans the UFC doctors decided to pull me out of the fight immediately. I want to apologize to the fans and the UFC. I will be back inshallah."
Top ranked Brandon Royval will take his place, ESPN Deportes' C.C. Legaspi reported on Thursday.
For 'The Assassin Baby', this will mark his sixth-straight rematch as well as his first non-title fight in almost four years, with the last one being against Royval at UFC 255.
Moreno TKO'ed Royval in their first encounter as 'Raw Dawg' suffered a nasty shoulder injury in round 1.
Since then, Moreno went on to become a two-time titleholder at flyweight, earning two wins over both Deveison Figueiredo and Kai Kara-France.
The Tijuana-native lost his title to another former foe in Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 290 in July, Moreno will look to work his way back up to a title shot with a win in his home country.
Royval is coming from his first world title fight, where he too lost a rematch against Pantoja at UFC 296. The lopsided loss snapped a three-fight win streak for Royval, which included victories over Matheus Nicolau, Matt Schnell and Rogerio Bontorin.
Across eight UFC fights, Royval has only lost to Moreno and Pantoja. He'll look to redeem himself against Moreno first if he ever wants a third shot at the reigning, defending 'Cannibal'.
Brandon Moreno vs. Brandon Royval will go down from Arena CDMX in Mexico City. This will be Moreno's second time headlining a UFC card in Mexico.
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