Paris Moran couldn't beat them, so he joined them.
It's proven to be one of the best decisions he said he's ever made. On Tuesday, Moran (14-3) hopes to prove that the addition of Joshua Van, Alden Coria, and Jacob Silva to his training tools will pay dividends when he takes on highly-touted Brazilian Marcos Degli (14-3) on Dana White's Contender Series.
"The place I was at mentally, I wasn't seeing it," Moran recently told MMA Junkie. "Without being too vulnerable, I was in, I wouldn't say a dark spot, but I wasn't in the best place mentally, and that's part of the reason I made the change too. I switched over to 4oz, and at first my dad was the one who said, 'You really need to go over here. These guys know what they're doing.' I was just going
through a weird transitional phase, I guess you could say. I felt burnt out in a way with fighting sometimes, training was all right, but things just were.
"... Making that switch over there kind of relit that flame for me, and everything kind of fell together, making the switch and getting that spark again, finding that love for the game again, and doing it because I wanna do it, not because I have to."
Moran now trains under UFC, Bellator, and PFL alumnus Daniel Pineda, who has put together quite a strong and growing faction of fighters at 4oz Fight Club in Houston. The squad also includes UFC fighters Michael Aswell and Dakota Hope.
Training with the UFC flyweight champion and a host of others who fight at the UFC level has sharpened Moran both mentally and physically and has him feeling ready to earn a contract when he fights in front of Dana White for the first time.
"I literally spar with literally the best in the world in Josh Van, and just being able to train with him and train with Alden," Moran said. "Alden's 2-0 in the UFC now. I'm just surrounded by great bodies, people, training partners, and not just that, genuine people who care. It's not just some fake stuff. These people genuinely care, and I care for them too. I care about their success just as much as they care about mine. So that always feels really good, knowing I'm in good hands and I'm at the right place."
It's been a difficult few years for Moran, who has repeatedly inched his way to the UFC doorstep, only to eventually find himself on the wrong end of a loss awaiting a call-up. Van beat him in 2022 to snap a six-fight winning streak. The after five more wins, Coria beat him (though the result was later overturned to a no contest due to a positive marijuana test). He then lost an immediate follow-up fight to Silva before he made the switch.
By turning the forces working against him into the forces working for him, Moran has since gone 2-0 and aims to make it 3-0 on Tuesday at Meta APEX in Las Vegas.
"It would mean everything to me," Moran said. "It's literally what I've been chasing after for 19 years now. Don't get me wrong, I'd be very grateful and excited and happy that the opportunity is there. But that's just where it starts for me, because yes, my goal is to get to the UFC – but that's not it. My goal is to make a sh*t ton of money. Just starting out, just getting there isn't gonna put me in a position to make life-changing money, but it's a start. Just getting there alone is going to feel so good. It's exciting and rewarding in a way, knowing that my career is finally starting, because, don't get me wrong, Fury has been great to me, but that's not the end goal.
"The end goal is to get to the UFC and change my life, my girlfriend's life, my parents' life. I know being in the UFC and going after that is what's going to do it for me. So being able to change my family's life, change my life, that's what I'm looking to do. Getting there is great, but getting in there, staying in there, making a lifelong career out of it, and setting myself up afterward for a good life, that's what I'm trying to do."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: If you can't beat them, join them: Paris Moran empowered by UFC fighters who beat him
