Video: Brandon Moreno on Alexandre Pantoja fight, Henry Cejudo, Mexican UFC champions, Legos, and more

Ahead of his title defense at UFC 290 this Saturday, UFC flyweight champion Brandon Moreno (21-6-2 MMA, 9-3-2 UFC) sat down with Roobet to discuss his upcoming fight and history with Alexandre Pantoja (25-5 MMA, 9-3 UFC), calling out Henry Cejudo, his legacy as the first Mexican-born UFC champion, and his greatest Lego achievement.

Here are some highlights from the Roobet Q&A:

On his legacy and career

All this crazy journey of myself, you know, talking about my career, man yeah, that’s myself. That’s my history. That’s part of my roller coaster life, and again, I’m not going to lie to you, was kind of hard, and a few times I felt like that said for me, I was done, but I always find the way to keep going, and I did it, and that’s why I think my history is different than other histories in the sport. Right? We have amazing history. I don’t know undisputed nice histories, but my history is more for the people. I think it’s more real. People can identify themselves with my history, so I think that’s why it’s special.

On going into his fight against Pantoja

I feel amazing. Just like that. I don’t care nothing about the bets. I don’t care nothing about the underdog, the favorite. I never watch that, actually, when it’s my fight. I never see other results or what the people are talking about the fight, because I think that is a kind of destruction for me, so I know I lost twice against him. Those losses punched me directly to my heart, to my heart, but I always use those moments as a new experience, as knowledge in my career, and all those results may build my personality and definitely, as a human being, make me do a better person and a better athlete.

On Cejudo

I think that was just a risky move I did, because I think in that moment, he was very disappointed for the result, and he was saying, like, ‘Oh, I want to retire. I don’t know what is next for me, blah, blah, blah,’ so that was just a little statement like, hey, just think about it in the future. But at the same time, I don’t like people asking me about that anymore because I’m really focused in Pantoja, man. A lot of people maybe can think, like, oh, maybe he’s a little bit distracted with thinking about other things, like Cejudo or the future or whatever, but no, man, that’s not the case. I’m not going to do that mistake because I know Pantoja is very dangerous and he’s motivated and he’s hungry of his success, so I’ll be ready for him. Definitely and after that, I’ll think the future. But now Pantoja is next.

On being the first Mexican-born UFC Champion

Man, I mean, being Mexican is the new fashion brother, and I’m happy. I’m happy for Alexa (Grasso), and I’m happy for Yair [Rodriguez) too, because I know both, and both are really good persons, really cool people, and they work really hard for their dreams. It’s the moment of Mexico. It was a kind of surprise. I’m not going to lie. I was expecting this kind of moment maybe in, I don’t know, three, four more years, but at the end of the day, personally, I’m working for that. I’m working to watch more contenders in the different division of the UFC, more contenders fighting for titles, more people in their rankings, so we need to keep working. We need to keep being focused in the main goal. But I don’t know, I think it’s nice to dream about it, like, watch more Mexicans in the highest levels of the UFC.

On Pantoja’s skillset

Man. I know Pantoja’s stuff. Like I said before, he’s hungry of success. He won this title, and I can see how he talk about this fight in different interviews. I think he’s a little frustrated because he watched all my success, and he’s thinking maybe like, ‘Hey, why this guy is the champion when I beat him in the past?’ First of all, he need to understand he lost a few fights and he need to be responsible of those losses. But after that, I know he’s really motivated. He won this fight. He want to be the next champion of the world, and that makes him dangerous at the same time. I prepared myself for that reason. Normally, I always prepare. I’m always ready. But this one, I know is special because he thinks he’s better than me. He really thinks that, and I think that’s an extra motivation for him. But, man, I’m ready. I don’t have nothing more to say. I don’t have extra words for him. I’m just ready. I’ll be in all my fight week, I’ll be in five days, just waiting for the moment the ref close the octagon and say, ‘Let’s go,’ because I’ll be ready for the challenge.

On his greatest Lego achievement.

My greatest achievement with Legos, so I think that the biggest one I have is the Daily Bugle from Spiderman. That one is very cool because it’s not just a huge building. The set have, like, 25 mini-figures, like, different kind of Spiderman, Venom, Carnage, Dr. Octopus. Another one. Very cool set. That one is very cool. Now, my next goal is to have another house. A bigger house, because I need more space. I don’t have more space in my office. And then I can build more. Actually, right now, I stopped to do it because I promise I don’t have a space to put more sets in my office. So, yeah, that’s my goal. But my biggest achievement is build Legos and distract myself or sometimes my regular life.