Thiago Moises missed Christmas and New Yr’s Eve’s banquets within the closing weeks of his camp for UFC Vegas 101, so it’s solely truthful that he seeks a stoppage victory on Jan. 11 to make all of it value it.
Moises informed MMA Combating he was initially provided a battle with Trey Ogden in November, however the former Fury FC champion couldn’t take it. The match was finally pushed again for the primary half of January, kicking off the 2025 calendar for the UFC.
“I requested for an additional opponent [in November] after which tried to get [Ogden] to battle in December, however I don’t know why Trey couldn’t both,” Moises stated. “I’d a lot slightly battle in November or December so I may take pleasure in Christmas and New Years’ Eve, however they ended up reserving this for January.”
As a substitute of gaining a number of kilos whereas celebrating Christmas together with his household in Florida, Moises was beginning the method to chop right down to 155 kilos. He spent the previous couple of days watching meals programing on TV, and received’t eat a lot till he hits the light-weight mark Friday morning in Las Vegas.
“I feel it will be means higher if we weren’t chopping weight, if we simply went there and fought, and we’d have the ability to battle much more usually and the fights could be higher,” Moises stated. “That’s the laborious half that we gotta do, but it surely’s a part of the job. [But] I feel my weight class is light-weight, I’m too small for [welterweight].”
The American High Staff product is struggling to place a win streak collectively since future champion Islam Makhachev snapped his three-fight run in 2021 in a most important occasion conflict on the UFC APEX, and now focuses on getting again on the profitable column following a defeat to Ludovit Klein in June.
Ogden is on a roll within the UFC regardless of having his dominating displaying over Nikolas Motta prematurely — and bizarrely — stopped by the referee, costing what could be the primary of three victories in a row. He entered the cage twice in 2024 to beat Kurt Holobaugh and Loik Radzhabov by way of resolution.
“Regardless that he’s not very identified but, I see he’s very robust and has good qualities,” Moises stated. “He has nice grappling and good timing together with his takedowns. It’s important to respect that. I’ve educated laborious and I’m taking him very severely as a result of there are issues he does with excellence.”
Ogden has by no means been stopped with strikes in 25 skilled MMA bouts, and Moises’s 18-8 data contains solely 4 knockouts. That stated, Moises sees openings for a stoppage on the UFC APEX.
“I see myself profitable this battle by knockout,” Moises stated. “He has a number of holes within the hanging, and we’ve educated laborious to discover these holes on this battle.”
