It might be a stretch to call it a curse, but former flyweight champion Brandon Moreno has struggled when fighting at home in Mexico while competing under the UFC banner.
Moreno, who has twice held flyweight gold in the UFC, is 0-2-1 in his home country, with all three fights coming in Mexico City. He returns there on Saturday, headlining 2025’s UFC Mexico City against Steve Erceg, who is looking to rebound from a pair of losses including one in a title fight against Alexandre Pantoja.
Speaking of losses, the UFC Mexico City card took one on Saturday, with Joe Pyfer falling ill, resulting in the cancellation of his fight with Kelvin Gastelum. In the co-main event, meanwhile, the ever-popular Drew Dober was set for lightweight action against Manuel Torres.
Our picks are in! Here’s how we see Saturday’s Fight Night at the Arena CDMX in Mexico City playing out.
| Writer / Fight | Rodriguez vs. Borjas | Martinez vs. Oliveira | Rosas Jr. vs. Morales | Torres vs. Dober | Moreno vs. Erceg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Behunin (32-19) |  |  |  |  |  |
| Eddie Law (32-19) | | | |  | |
| Chris Prawdzik (27-18) | | | | |  |
| Patrick McCorry (31-20) | | | | | |
| Jay Anderson (30-21) |  | | | | |
| Mathis Desjardins (30-21) | | |  | | |
| Brett Cagle (30-21) | | | | | |
There’s just one unanimous selection among our crew this week. That is David Martinez, who faces Brazil’s Saimon Oliveira in bantamweight action. The thought process here is pretty clear: Oliveira, who won on the Contender Series in 2021, has lost both of his UFC fights to date. He’s also been out of action for over two years, missing most of 2023 and all of 2024. His last action came in January 2023, a loss against Daniel Marcos. Martinez, though making his promotional debut, is riding in off momentum from the Contender Series.
Other UFC Mexico City fighters were heavy favorites, if not unanimous picks. Ronaldo Rodriguez is all but a lock in our teams’ eyes, with only one writer questioning his miss at the scales on Friday ahead of his fight with the slumping Kevin Borjas. Raul Rosas Jr, Drew Dober, and Brandon Moreno are also strong favorites in their fights – meaning our team fully expects “The Assassin Baby” Moreno to get his much desired win at home in the UFC.
