On Saturday, the PFL heads to Las Vegas with a stacked fight card, and with it heads Marlon Moraes. The former UFC bantamweight contender and World Series of Fighting champion take on Brendan Loughnane. This is Marlon Moraes’ second shot at Featherweight this time round after losing his last bout to fellow countryman Sheymon Moraes. He plans to walk down in the main event spot and get back into the win column this weekend.
Growth in Martial Arts
Born in Nova Friburgo, Brazil, Marlon, in his early life, trained Muay Thai and not BJJ like a lot of current Brazilian fighters. This brought him great success in his childhood, winning two national championships whilst then learning BJJ eventually along the way. His vast experience early on gained him a phenomenal skillset to which he was very capable of competing in a mixed martial arts fight, combing his two skills.
Desafio
Marlon Moraes’s first organisation joined would be a short adventure with them. Moraes featured on the Desafio Brazil Fight Centre 2 card. There were three fights to feature on this day, and he would be the second competitor. He would manage to finish his opponent Bruno Santana in match 2, round 1 via RNC. This is Santana’s only documented fight for availability to find in professional fighting. This bout took place way back in April 2007. This would make Marlon 18 years old when his first professional fight was documented.
MMASC
After the one fight for Desafio, Marlon moved to the next organisation where it would be another one fight appearance still in his homeland of Brazil. He would compete in an MMASC fight card in March 2008. This time out, his competitor would be Jose Lucas Fabiano De Melo. Marlon would achieve his first TKO in this bout, defeating his opponent, who had double the professional fighting experience as he did. Jose Lucas Fabiano De Melo would go on to have a decent fight career, achieving a record of 14-11-1.
Shooto Brazil
Another new organisation and only a month lay off since his last bout for Moraes as he was desperate to continue being active and improving. The determination of eagerness to return would pay dividends, though, as he would be handed his first pro loss. This would be given to him by another fellow Brazilian competitor in the way of Alexandre Pinherio. It was caused by the first round TKO.
Marlon would not try to let this result effect him much, though, as he jumped right back into the octagon. This time the lay off would be a two-month period, and yet again, this would come to cost him. The shear determination and aim for greatness as quickly as possible was damaging to the Brazilian has he would face a TKO loss in two fights in a row. This would be to Zielton Rodrigues. This fight did last two rounds instead of the past 1 round, boosting his octagon time.
At this point, Moraes decided it was time not to come back as quickly as he possibly could and had a 7-month wait until his next bout, still fighting for Shooto Brazil. This would get him back into the win column, too, with a win against Andre Rouberte. The theme of TKO finishes would go to a 4-fight streak as Marlon, this time, would achieve the TKO finish. This would occur in round 1, showing a good bounce back from an off period beforehand.
A Two Year Grind
After Marlon defeated Roubetre, he joined a total of 6 different organisations within a two year period, massively bosting his knowledge and experience of the arts and having some very tough battles along the way. On this adventure, he would face his first non-Brazilian opponent too. Nicolas Joannes was his name, and Marlon would submit him within the first round with an RNC.
Ryan Bixler would face Marlon next and this is where he would achieve his only Keylock submission of his career. He managed to pull it off in the very first round within 2 minutes, showcasing what a talent he would be. Two losses would follow this, one after only 14 days since his last bout. This continued the unfortunate streak of not being able to showcase all his skills in quick succession, but this streak would then be defeated the same very year. After just two weeks of the back of a loss, Marlon risked it. He would face Chris Manuel and win his first-ever decision. This victory would spur on an incredible win streak for Marlon.
WSOF
World Series of Fighting is where Marlon Moraes showed the world he is the real deal. Through his time with the fight company, he would go an incredible 11-0. Through the way of this was also the winning of his only world championship to date in his career. The fight to win the title was against Josh Rettinghouse and made Marlon Moraes the first champion in WFOF history for the Bantamweight division.
An unbelievable 6 title defences would follow, with one 1 being a decision. Marlon was completely dominant and put on phenomenal performances with submission, TKO and his first KO along that path. The eventuality of this would lead to Dana White signing the Brazilian superstar, and the UFC beckoned for ‘Magic’ Marlon Moraes.
UFC
UFC debut time was here for Marlon Moraes, and yet again, a Brazilian would stand in his way. His opponent had been around the block in the UFC, showing how highly Marlons was rated, as Raphael Assuncao would face him. This fight would go to a split decision, and for the first time in 6 years, Marlon would lose. This loss did not dampen spirits, though and spurred on a form of greatness instead. Terrific performances and impressive results would run Marlon very far. This came by beating John Dodson and current UFC Bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling within 29 days of each other. More names were put on the CV, with a win over Jimmie Rivera.
Rematch time for the title shot was what then stood in the way of ‘Magic’. Marlon would face old foe Assuncao yet again. This would be the second main event in his UFC career, and he made the most of it. Quick out the blocks. No time was wasted. Stunningly, Marlon would achieve a simply sensational result with a first-round submission. This was then time to face the man that seemed invincible, Henry Cejudo.
UFC Title Shot
On June 8th 2019, Marlon Moraes got the biggest opportunity of his career. UFC 238 – Cejudo vs Moraes. This fight carried with it a lot of hype, with Brazil eager for another UFC champion. High flying Henry Cejudo was no rolling stone though, and this was made clear
Round 1 was a great round for Marlon, as he was 10-9 up so far on all scorecards. This was achieved by controlling distance perfectly, not allowing Cejudo near him.
In round 2, something would change. Henry Cejudo had round his mojo. The pressure was mounting on Marlon as he began to have to defend and counter, resulting in the scorecards being 19-19 on all 3 judges scorecards.
Round 3 began, and Cejudo was as aggressive as they come. From clinching to strikes, Marlon became exhausted. This would end the win streak and unfortunately for him, lose him the title fight with a 3rd round stoppage.
This was nothing to bear himself up about though. He had showcased to the world he was one of the very best. Performances showed this and his time wasnt up in the UFC yet.
UFC Life After Title Shot
The UFC rewarded the efforts of Marlon Moraes and gave him a fight against UFC legend and former featherweight champion Jose Aldo. This fight would go to the decision, with Marlon winning against his fellow Brazilian. From this point, though, things did not go swimmingly.
The UFC would stop due to Covid-19, and Marlon’s first fight back would be against the high-flying Cory Sandhagen. This bout would produce one of the greatest spinning heel kicks in recent years, but unfortunately for Marlon, he was on the wrong side of it. This began a very uncharacteristic fall for the Brazilian. He would go on to lose his next three fights in the UFC, resulting in being released. From the highs to the lowest of lows, this just demonstrates how fast life can come, even to the very best.
PFL
Marlon would be signed by PFL after his release, looking to get back into his groove. This did not end up being the case, as he lost his first bout to Sheymon Moraes. This caused a selection of people online to question where Marlon would go next and if the gloves could be left behind. This is not on my mind of, Marlon. He looks to find his ‘Magic’ yet again.
On Saturday, he looks to get his career right back on track when facing Brendan Loughnane. He knows the skills are there. He has the talent. Marlon looks to bounce back in impressive style and show everyone he is not done yet.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
