'That was a special moment for me' - Brandon Moreno reveals how Rose Namajunas inspired him to UFC 263 title win
Brandon Moreno recently revealed that he drew inspiration from UFC women's strawweight champion Rose Namajunas, going into his title bout against Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 263.
According to Moreno, Figueiredo’s face-off push had no impact on him in the build-up to the fight and he was able to just focus on his title opportunity.
Revealing how Rose Namajunas' recent title victory served as a source of inspiration for him, Brandon Moreno said in the post-fight presser at UFC 263-
"I don’t care. You can push me 100 times if you want, but nothing changed. I’ll be the next flyweight champion of the world, and I am the best, you know? I have a lot of memories with Rose Namajunas. That was a special moment for me. Because she was an underdog against Joanna, and she was an underdog against Weili. And I remember that moment when she started to say to (herself), ‘I’m the best! I’m the best!’ That was like, whoa. You need to believe that. And my mind is built with another material definitely.”
Brandon Moreno was crowned the new UFC flyweight champion after a dominant submission victory against Deiveson Figueiredo in the co-main event at UFC 263.
Going in as an underdog, Moreno dominated Figueiredo for the better part of two rounds before sinking in a rear-naked choke in the third.
The fight was officially stopped at 02:26 of the third round, cementing Brandon Moreno as the first Mexican-born champion in UFC history.
Brandon Moreno's favorite knockout of the year so far
Brandon Moreno certainly shares a bond with Rose Namajunas and even voted her knockout win over Weili Zhang as his favorite knockout of the year.
Namajunas made quick work of Weili Zhang at UFC 263, knocking her out cold with a left head-kick 78 seconds into the opening round.
When asked about his favorite knockout of the year in a recent sixty-second episode of the Schmozone podcast, Brandon Moreno told Helen Yee-
“Rose, definitely. I don’t know why, but I feel like it’s my own victory. She makes every single person in the crowd feel goosebumps.”