Brandon Royval Replaces Amir Albazi Against Brandon Moreno at UFC Mexico City

When it comes to the Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight
division, few fights in the top 10 will be disappointing.

According to the promotion’s broadcast partner of ESPN
on Thursday, Amir Albazi
(17-1) will no longer be competing in the headliner of
UFC Mexico City on Feb. 24. In his place will be Brandon
Royval (15-7), who will take on former foe Brandon
Moreno (21-7-2) in the Mexico City Arena in Mexico City. Albazi
has since posted on social
media that he was forced out of the fight due to a neck injury.
Moreno and Royval previously faced off in 2020, and Moreno picked
up the stoppage win that came with a bit of controversy.

“It’s a different opponent, I don’t know what happened with
Amir
Albazi,” Moreno remarked to ESPN,
“but he’s out of the fight. So now I’m going to fight against
Brandon
Royval, he fought for the belt in December. And…I’m just ready.
In the end, it’s just about the next opponent. I just want the
opportunity to fight for the title again, and if UFC say I have to
fight one more time before that, I will.”

This will be Moreno’s first non-championship bout since he faced
Royval for the first time at UFC 255 in 2020. The Mexican-born
combatant became the first fighter from his country to win a belt
with the UFC when he tapped Deiveson
Figueiredo in 2021. “The Assassin Baby” lost his throne in a
rematch to Figueiredo the following year, but went to claim an
interim strap by knocking out Kai Kara France a few months later.
Moreno completed the tetralogy in early 2023, winning via doctor
stoppage. His last appearance came at UFC 290, and he dropped a
split decision to Alexandre
Pantoja to surrender his title once again.

“Yeah, that fight was 2020,” Moreno replied when reminded that the
fight with Royval is a rematch. “It was really a fast, quick fight.
Royval had this problem in the shoulder, but I really believe I was
winning the fight, so I don’t know. He was saying a lot of
different things on social media about our fight in 2020, but in
the end, we are going to fight again in front of my people and I’m
excited for that.”

Royval is also coming off of a decision loss to Pantoja for the
125-pound crown. That loss snapped a three-fight win streak for the
energetic Colorado native, who had won on the scorecards against
Rogerio
Bontorin, tapped out Matt
Schnell and knocked out Matheus
Nicolau. “Raw Dawg” sports a career finish rate of 87%, with
his decision against Bontorin just one of two in his career—the
first came against Charles
Johnson in 2018. In their first fight, Moreno came out ahead
after Royval suffered an apparent shoulder injury, putting the
American away with strikes right before Round 1 ended.

Albazi posted on social
media the reason for his withdrawal, apologizing for suffering
an injury.

“I’m out of the fight against Moreno [on the] 24th of February,”
Albazi wrote. “I have been dealing with a serious neck injury the
past weeks. 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.”

UFC Mexico City, also known as UFC Fight Night 237, will be held at
the Mexico City Arena in Mexico City on Feb. 24. The co-headlining
attraction will be a five-round affair between Yair
Rodriguez and Brian
Ortega. The remainder of the bout order has not yet been set,
but fights expected to serve on the main card include a
bantamweight tilt between Raul Rosas
Jr. and Ricky
Turcios, and a lightweight scrap between Claudio
Puelles and Fares Ziam.