Lone’er Kavanagh earned the biggest win of his career at UFC Mexico, defeating Brandon Moreno and skyrocketing himself up the flyweight rankings.
While the first round was fairly competitive, it was the calf kicks from Kavanagh that stood out. By the end of the five minutes, Moreno was already sporting a significant bruise on his calf—something that was sure to pay dividends for Kavanagh as the fight continued.
Moreno was already forced to shake out his lead leg halfway through the second stanza as Kavanagh caught ‘The Assassin Baby’ with a booming counter right that had the former flyweight champ reeling. Kavanagh unleashed a flurry, but showed restraint after recognizing that Moreno would be able to weather the storm.
Moreno ultimately made it out of the round, but both his leg and his face looked as though he’d already gone through a five-round war.
We got our first bit of grappling in the third as Moreno shot in for a high-crotch takedown. Kavanagh used the fence to stay upright, inevitably breaking the grip before separating. Moreno clinched up once again in the closing seconds of the round.
Though he offered little in the way of offense, he prevented Kavanagh from doing any additional damage.
Moreno deployed a similar tactic in the fourth, pressing Kavanagh against the fence for more than half the round. With two minutes to go in the stanza, Kavanagh broke free and unleashed another calf kick that had Moreno limping.
Moreno shot in for his sixth takedown attempt, but like the previous five, he was unable to accomplish anything. Still, the attempt ensured that Moreno wouldn’t take any more calf kicks through the end of the round.
Moreno immediately went back to the clinch in the fifth, but it wasn’t long before referee Herb Dean would separate them due to a lack of action. Upon the reset, Moreno appeared to be bleeding from his mouth after absorbing a shot in the clinch.
Moreno went right back to the clinch with two minutes to go. Despite his best efforts to muscle Kavanagh to the mat, he was unable to get the Brit down.
Kavanagh separated himself with 90 seconds left and connected with a counter left before softening up Moreno’s calf with another nasty kick. Moreno clinched up once again, racking up a few more seconds of control time, but it wouldn’t be enough to get him back into the win column.
Official Result: Lone’er Kavanagh def. Brandon Moreno via unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 48-47).
