“Brandon Moreno lands next assignment at #UFC335,” MMA Junkie wrote on X late Monday. The fight is against Charles Johnson on Dec. 12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The UFC made the bout official Monday, and MMA Fighting had the matchup first.
Moreno (24-10-2 MMA, 12-7-2 UFC) is the first Mexican fighter to win a UFC title and a two-time flyweight champion. The Fortis MMA product is ranked a little differently depending on who you ask. He sits at No. 8 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie flyweight rankings, No. 10 in the UFC’s own flyweight rankings as of Oct. 3, and No. 10 in ours.
That spread tracks with how his 2026 has gone. He opened the year in February with a loss to Lone’er Kavanagh, then got back in the win column at Noche UFC on Sept. 12 with a split decision over Joseph Morales. A split is a win, and I’ll take a former champ getting his hand raised in front of that crowd. It also wasn’t the kind of performance that settles anyone’s nerves about where he stands at 125.
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Dec. 12 will be his third fight of the calendar year. Very few former champions keep that kind of schedule, and I like it. Flyweight rewards activity, and Moreno has always been at his best when he’s fighting often enough to make adjustments in real time instead of sitting on a loss for a year. The turnaround from Morales is three months, which is plenty if he came out of September healthy.
The sources don’t detail Johnson’s record or ranking, so I won’t pretend to. The stakes for Johnson are simple, though. A win over a two-time champion is the most valuable line you can add to a flyweight résumé, and it would come on a pay-per-view card in Las Vegas. For Moreno, a second straight win would close the year on a run and put him back in the conversation with the names ranked above him. A loss would mean two defeats in 10 months.
UFC 335 is headlined by Oliveira vs. Lopes. Moreno turns 33 on Dec. 7, five days before he walks out.
