Thiago Moises missed Christmas and New Year’s Eve’s banquets in the final weeks of his camp for UFC Vegas 101, so it’s only fair that he seeks a stoppage victory on Jan. 11 to make it all worth it.
Moises told MMA Fighting he was originally offered a fight with Trey Ogden in November, but the former Fury FC champion couldn’t take it. The match was ultimately pushed back for the first half of January, kicking off the 2025 calendar for the UFC.
“I asked for another opponent [in November] and then tried to get [Ogden] to fight in December, but I don’t know why Trey couldn’t either,” Moises said. “I’d much rather fight in November or December so I could enjoy Christmas and New Years’ Eve, but they ended up booking this for January.”
Instead of gaining a few pounds while celebrating Christmas with his family in Florida, Moises was starting the process to cut down to 155 pounds. He spent the last few days watching food programing on TV, and won’t eat much until he hits the lightweight mark Friday morning in Las Vegas.
“I think it would be way better if we weren’t cutting weight, if we just went there and fought, and we would be able to fight a lot more often and the fights would be better,” Moises said. “That’s the hard part that we gotta do, but it’s part of the job. [But] I think my weight class is lightweight, I’m too small for [welterweight].”
The American Top Team product is struggling to put a win streak together since future champion Islam Makhachev snapped his three-fight run in 2021 in a main event clash at the UFC APEX, and now focuses on getting back on the winning column following a defeat to Ludovit Klein in June.
Ogden is on a roll in the UFC despite having his dominating showing over Nikolas Motta prematurely — and bizarrely — stopped by the referee, costing what would be the first of three victories in a row. He entered the cage twice in 2024 to beat Kurt Holobaugh and Loik Radzhabov via decision.
“Even though he’s not very known yet, I see he’s very tough and has good qualities,” Moises said. “He has great grappling and good timing with his takedowns. You have to respect that. I’ve trained hard and I’m taking him very seriously because there are things he does with excellence.”
Ogden has never been stopped with strikes in 25 professional MMA bouts, and Moises’s 18-8 records includes only four knockouts. That said, Moises sees openings for a stoppage at the UFC APEX.
“I see myself winning this fight by knockout,” Moises said. “He has a lot of holes in the striking, and we’ve trained hard to explore those holes in this fight.”
