UFC Mexico City went down last Saturday night (Feb. 28, 2026) in Mexico City, Mexico — despite all of the cartel violence plaguing the country — leaving several fighters feeling the post-fight blues. Among them was Marlon Vera, who suffered his fourth straight loss after coming up short against David Martinez (recap here).
And Daniel Zellhuber, who suffered his third straight defeat after getting knocked out at the hands King Green in round two (video replay here). But which fighter is suffering from
the worst post-fight hangover, now a few days removed from the show?
Brandon Moreno.
Coming into the event, Moreno was in line to face Asu Almabayev before “Zulfikar” had to bow out with an injury. Stepping in to fill the void was Lone’er Kavanagh, who agreed to take the short-notice fight in hopes of turning things around for himself after suffering a knockout loss at the hands of Charles Johnson in China last August (see it again here).
Once the dust settled Kavanagh pulled off the major upset against the No. 4 ranked fighter at Flyweight with a stellar performance that had Moreno bewildered. From the jump Kavanagh showed that he was more than willing to stand-and-bang, getting the better of the striking exchanges. By the time Moreno tried to go to his wrestling, Kavanagh was already up on all of the judges scorecards, winning every round rather convincingly.
In the end, the judges had no issue awarding the unanimous decision to Kavanagh, picking up the biggest win of his career against a former world champion. For Moreno, the loss is a crucial one because its his second straight after losing to Tatsuro Taira via TKO just two months ago. All told, “The Assassin Baby” has now lost four of his last six outings, a drastic fall from the time where he once ruled the division and competed in five straight title fights from 2020 to 2023.
At 32 years of age Moreno is far from a spring chicken, but there is no need to start calling him an aging washed fighter just yet. He does have time and the ability to turn things around for himself, but he and his team will have to look deep to see where the problems are and try to fix them as soon as possible because a third straight loss won’t do his career any favors.
That said, he is a fan-favorite so he has a career inside the Octagon as long as he performs to a high standard. As far as what could be next for him, perhaps a fight against Charles Johnson or Tagir Ulanbekov (No. 12) could be in order. Johnson (No. 13) is 1-2 in his last three fights and is coming off a loss at the hands of Alex Perez, while Ulanbekov is fresh off a loss to Kyoji Horiguchi.
Either one of the matchups could be a bounce back fight for Moreno since he shouldn’t be expecting to face anyone inside the Top 10 just yet.
For complete UFC Mexico City results, coverage and highlights click HERE.
