Where did things go wrong for Moraes?

[Pilo]

He's a shit ton of fun to watch, much like the entire roster of that sweet bantamweight division, which is turning out to be the most exciting one in the entire sport.

Moraes is still a threat, man. And for those who say he looks more hesitant since the loss to Cejudo, what we saw on Saturday wasn't anywhere close to a hesitant fighter. He actually got carried into a brawl, and got caught. It happens. The BWs are incredibly skilled, lightning quick, athletic and powerful. To KO Rivera and Sterling back to back with head kicks is a tremendous achievement. He looked great in the first round against Cejudo too, before the fight took a 180 degrees turn.

As another poster said, he's in a weirdass position now, and needs a win badly, but I think he puts most guys ranked below that top 5 to sleep, en route to building a win streak and getting back to the top of the bantamweight food chain.

 

[Aluminati]

At birth, his mother named him Marlon.

 

[FIghtxIQ]

He lost his aura, after the Cejudo fight everyone knew he could not only be beaten but also broken.


A huge part of fighting is mental, the mental fortitude to commit to your strikes and your game plan, once an opponent loses that aura of intimidation you’ll see the opposition more aggressive and more likely to hurt that formally intimidating fighter.

Combine that with short layoffs and things can spiral out of control quickly.

This is true, he needs to gain that aura back by some dominating finishes/wins. But his confidence is down especially after being repeatedly finished which is causing him mental stress in preparation and probably stresses him out during the fights. His whole demeanor seems to change once they start landing clean shots on him and he starts to freeze up.

Right now I believe his problem is mental, his physical capabilities doesn't seem to have gone away, he just seems to freeze up once he starts getting hit or once the fight starts pulling away from him. Like in the Font fight he seemed very confident when he was throwing kicks and landing some shots, but once Font started hitting him with the power jabs he froze up.

 

[H41ph_84k3d]

 

[DrunkMonkMeth]

Cardio and he seems to buckle under pressure and adversity. Never seen him really survive being in a tough situation..

Also i think his ko on sterling was fluke.. wasnt even throwing a knee

 

[Schoolboy Q]

ATT happened, terrible gym.

 

[marvinparsons]

He seems like he has lost a little bit of speed, his chin is not great and he has lost confidence. Bad trifecta.

Font does hit hard, but the shots that wobbled him wouldn't have even stunned Moreno the other night. Moraes got knocked back 10 feet with a jab.

 

[Strategery]

I don't see anything special about him now. He is on 1-3 streak.

 

[Kenny Powerth]

Give the man some credit, he has fought a killers row of fights.

His “MMA Strength of Schedule” is ridiculous

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

He lost his explosiveness ever since Sterling destroyed his knee with that headbutt. Sterling, true BW champ 2021!

 

[Kono dio da!]

It's mental.
Also shit cardio, which is strange, i thought all bantamweights had great cardio.

 

[Mesos]

Still feel like Moraes has all the skills to make it to the top. He proved himself as a top guy since he came from WSOF, even receiving a title shot. I really felt like he would be UFC champ.

Has he just gotten old? Does he need to switch camps? Thoughts?

Father time, his chins been eroded away

 

[xhaydenx]

I think he just wasn't as good as everyone thought.

I mean, he came in, lost to Assuncao, then just squeaked by Dodson.

Then he got three finishes that were really nice, but Aljo and Jimmie . . . I don't want to say they were flukey, because that isn't right, but he sort of caught them both pretty early out of nowhere and got the quick finish.

With the exception of the Assuncao rematch, In every UFC fight that he didn't finish within the first round, he either looked beatable or did get beaten.

 

[TriangleMonkey]

TBF Rob has good boxing, size/reach, and power at BW and is a really tough dude. Marlon needs step down the rung and fight down some competition after a lengthy break.

 

[Team SerJoe]

He got dragged into a slugfest by a legit brawler. He Was rocked by punches and instead of creating space to recover he attacked with a wheel kick... that’s all ego, imo

 

[EJRMAN513]

ATT happened, terrible gym.

Obvious it all stems from the Cejudo fight. I don't agree that ATT is a terrible gym at all but I don't think him moving there helped matters. Barboza moved there and I know they're close but since he's gotten away from Mark Henry, Moraes seems to rely a lot more on his explosion and reactionary skills whereas with Henry even though he still used the aforementioned traits he used them with a bit more thought and methodical approach.

Don't think he's mentally weak overall and don't think he has cardio problems historically outside of his most recent fights. He's survived adversity before in his fights with Assuncao, Dodson and Josh Hill in WSOF and has gone 3-5 rounds multiple times no problem. Think he needs to take some time off and maybe see a sports psychologist. He's getting older as well. Maybe time to consider 145? Still think he has all the right tools physically but that Cejudo fight really messed him up.