UFC 281 is filling up nicely.
Lightweight Renato Moicano revealed on an MMA Junkie Twitter Space that his next fight will be on November 12th at New York’s Madison Square Garden against Brad Riddell. Neither fighter is ranked in the UFC’s top-15, but Riddell was ranked prior to his last fight and Moicano was best known for his contending days at featherweight.
Riddell (10-3) is on the first losing streak of his career, having been knocked out by Rafael Fiziev before a surprisingly swift submission at the hands of rising star Jalin Turner. The City Kickboxing standout (and former professional kickboxer) began his UFC tenure with four consecutive wins, most notably a ‘Fight of the Night’ decision over Drew Dober at UFC 263 last June.
Moicano (16-5-1) found success down at featherweight, most notably in wins against Cub Swanson and Calvin Kattar. After back-to-back defeats to Jose Aldo and Chan Sung Jung, the Brazilian moved up to lightweight and easily submitted Damir Hadzovic. His next fight against Rafael Fiziev ended in a first-round knockout, but he responded with consecutive submissions over Jai Herbert and Alexander Hernandez. Moicano bravely took on Rafael dos Anjos on short notice at UFC 272, losing a mostly one-sided fight but managing to go the distance over five rounds.
UFC 281 features a main event between middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and kickboxing rival Alex Pereira. The co-main event will be a women’s strawweight title defense for Carla Esparza against former champ Zhang Weili.
