Marcos Degli hasn’t thrown a punch inside the UFC yet, and he’s already accusing his first opponent of building a fake résumé. The Brazilian flyweight told MMA Fighting that Mitch Raposo padded his record before reaching the promotion, and that the UFC booked the fight so Degli can show Raposo the exit.
“I believe he had a padded record, and we’re not like that,” Degli said. He argued that Raposo’s early finishes came against guys with four wins and more than 20 losses, while Degli built his run against the toughest competition in Brazil.
The two meet Saturday at UFC Vegas 124.
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On the UFC’s supposed motive, Degli didn’t hedge. “And they want us to send this guy packing, right? I’m going to have to beat him so he gets out of there,” he said, before adding a jab at Raposo’s octagon output: “A guy with four fights, all four going to decisions, for God’s sake, right?”
The numbers
Degli, a former LFA flyweight champion, rides a 13-fight winning streak with 12 stoppages. The latest was a rear-naked choke of Paris Moran on Dana White’s Contender Series in September. Before that he went 6-0 in LFA, including three title fights against Lincon Santos (9-2), Matheus Severino (14-4) and Luis Aguiar (9-1). He knocked out all three.
Raposo is 2-2 in the UFC, every fight going the distance, and he’s won his last two over Azat Maksum and Allan Nascimento. Degli’s padding claim has some arithmetic behind it. Raposo stopped opponents in five of his seven pre-UFC wins, and those seven opponents carried a combined 24-28-1 record when he fought them.
Degli called Raposo’s style “easy to read.” His breakdown: Raposo leans on hand volume without real stopping power, shoots a double leg when pressured, and can’t keep opponents down despite holding a black belt. Degli said his camp expects Raposo to come out hottest in the first round, and the plan is to weather that, chip away and find a knockout.
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Moreno in the crosshairs
Degli trains alongside Carlos Prates, who has picked up a bonus in every UFC win and now challenges Michael Morales for the interim welterweight title. Degli wants the same express lane, and he plans to call out Brandon Moreno from the cage Saturday night. Moreno is booked against Charles Johnson on Dec. 12.
“I have the knockout power to catch him and knock him out,” Degli said of Moreno, whom he described as a former champ nearing the end of his career. He also made it clear he’s hunting a Performance of the Night check to close out the year.
Quick take
I like a guy who answers questions straight, and Degli answered every one of them. The padded-record shot holds up better than most trash talk, since 24-28-1 is a soft runway. The part about the UFC wanting Raposo gone, though, comes from exactly one source, and his name is Marcos Degli. Raposo has won two straight in the UFC, which is two more UFC wins than Degli has. Calling out Moreno before you’ve cleared your debut is a bold bit of scheduling, and if Raposo drags this to the scorecards the way he has four times already, that Dec. 12 callout is going to sound pretty quiet.
