Biggest Winners, Loser From UFC Mexico City

UFC Mexico City went down last night (Sat., Feb, 24, 2024) inside Arena CDMX, Mexico City, Mexico. In the main event of the evening, Brandon Royval picked up a huge win by defeating former Flyweight champion, Brandon Moreno, after 25 minutes of back-and-forth action (full recap here). In the co-main event, Brian Ortega got back on track by submitting Yair Rodriguez in the third round of their Featherweight bout (see it again here).

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Biggest Winner: Brian Ortega

In what would have been a disastrous twist of fate, for a split-second it seemed as if Brian Ortega had suffered another fight-altering injury against Yair Rodriguez right before the bout began after rolling his ankle during the introductions. If you recall, “T-City” suffered a terrible shoulder injury in the first fight, giving “El Pantera” the first-round win. Thankfully, Ortega was okay and proceeded to take care of business. Though the first round didn’t work out his way, he picked up the pace in round two, dominating that round and eventually securing a highly-impressive submission win in round three. It’s a huge victory for “T-City” because it’s his first since defeating Chan Sung Jung in Oct. 2020, snapping his two-fight skid, as well. He will overtake Rodriguez for the No. 3 spot, but will need another win or two before he gets considered for another title shot.

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Runner Up: Brandon Royval

Royval went into Moreno’s backyard and took the fight right from under him, getting the better of the former 125-pound champion to walk away with a close split-decision. It’s a great bounce-back performance for Royval, who came up short in his bid to dethrone current champion, Alexandre Pantoja, in his previous bout. Afterward. “Raw Dawg” was quick to call for a championship rematch — third fight overall — against Pantoja. If the promotion doesn’t give Amir Albazi the next shot at Pantoja, don’t be too surprised if Royval gets another shot at redemption after getting his revenge on “Assassin Baby.”

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Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Biggest Loser: Yair Rodriguez

“El Pantera” spent a lot of time leading up to his rematch against Ortega speaking out against newly-crowned champion, Ilia Topuria. In fact, the Mexican-born fighter had been going at the new champion even days before “El Matador” defeated Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298, and then again earlier this week during his media day interviews. That’s energy that should’ve been focused on Ortega. Now on a two-fight losing streak for the first time in his career following his submission defeat to “T-City,” Rodriguez will have to go back to the lab and figure things out. In his defense, however, he did look great in the opening round before Ortega turned up the heat in the following two rounds. Rodriguez will drop a spot or two in the rankings pushing him further away from another shot at the title and a chance to put hands on Topuria. Inside the cage, that is.

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For complete UFC Mexico City results, coverage, and highlights, click HERE.