Brandon Moreno vs. Charles Johnson made official for UFC 335 in Las Vegas

Former two-time UFC flyweight champion Brandon Moreno will fight Charles Johnson at UFC 335 on Saturday, Dec. 12, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The UFC officially announced the bout on Monday, according to MMA Junkie. It is now listed on the UFC's event page.

MMA Fighting first reported the UFC's plans on Sept. 24. The UFC revealed UFC 335's main event and co-main during the UFC 332 broadcast on Oct. 3. This bout wasn't part of that, as Sports Illustrated noted.

Both men were open to it. After his win in September, Moreno said he wanted one more fight before the end of the year, per MMA Fighting. According to Johnson, Moreno named him and Kyoji Horiguchi as options. Johnson wrote on X, as Heavy reported:

"Amazing news! Moreno wants to fight in December, so do I! He named INNERG and Horiguchi as potential opponents and that's def fair!! A Former champ, all the respect."

The flyweight bout is fourth on UFC.com's listing. Above it are Charles Oliveira vs. Diego Lopes, Sergei Pavlovich vs. Alex Pereira and Joe Pyfer vs. Bo Nickal.

Where they stand

Moreno, 32, is 24-10-2 according to MMA Junkie and ranked No. 8 in the UFC's rankings. He beat Deiveson Figueiredo for the title at UFC 263 in June 2021 and lost it back at UFC 270. He won the interim belt at UFC 277, then unified at UFC 283 in January 2023, per Wikipedia. Alexandre Pantoja took the belt from him by split decision in July 2023, and he has gone 3-3 since.

Tatsuro Taira stopped him at UFC 323 last December. Lone'er Kavanagh, a short-notice replacement according to MMASucka, then beat him on the cards in February. Moreno closed as a −204 favourite that night, according to his CageOracle page.

He stopped the slide at Noche UFC on Sept. 12, edging Joseph Morales by split decision (28-29, 30-27, 30-27), Cageside Press reported. He closed at −105 that night, close to even, per his CageOracle page. A loss in December would be his third in four fights.

Johnson, 35, is 20-9 overall and 9-7 in the UFC, and is outside the UFC's top 15. He gave current champion Joshua Van the only knockout loss of his career, in July 2024, Boxing News points out. December will be his fifth UFC fight of 2026.

His year so far is 2-2, per Wikipedia). Alex Perez stopped him in January, and he beat Bruno Silva by split decision in March. Asu Almabayev submitted him in June, then he finished Eduardo "Chapolin" Henrique with a twister at UFC 330 on Aug. 15. Their one common UFC opponent is Kavanagh, whom Johnson knocked out in August 2025.

The betting side

No US sportsbook has priced the fight yet, so there is no line to report. We'll add it to the fight page when it opens.

Their records as bets look very different. Backing Moreno at closing odds in his 12 priced UFC fights would have roughly broken even. Johnson has won 8 of his 13 priced UFC fights for +3.83 units at one unit a fight, his page shows. Most of that came from three underdog wins: Van (+212), Azat Maksum (+205) and Kavanagh (+205).

We think Johnson is a tougher draw than his lack of a ranking suggests. He has beaten good flyweights as an underdog, and he has already knocked out the man who now holds the belt. But Moreno is hard to hit cleanly. He avoids 61% of significant strikes, better than 90% of active UFC fighters, according to our numbers.

The title picture

Van retained the belt against Pantoja by unanimous decision at UFC 331 in September. Boxing News expects Van to face Manel Kape next and thinks a Johnson win could earn him a title eliminator.