Alex Hernandez will test his skills against Renato Moicano at UFC 271 on Feburary 12. This lightweight clash will take place at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
The AllStar’s John Hyon Ko spoke with Hernandez about this moment to make a statement.
Veteran Vibes
“The Great” steps into the cage for his ninth UFC contest and has been part of the promotional fold since his emphatic debut in March 2018.
He says he’s finally starting to feel like a veteran in his last couple of fights.
Being offered this bout presented Hernandez with the type of fulfilling high risk, high reward opportunity that comes with facing an established fighter.
“I’m game, bro. I’m always game. I was excited for a challenge. The last fight was kind of a weird one. Just because of (James) Krause being in the corner and the short notice. It was kind of like the reverse role of me and (Beneil) Dariush. I’m grateful for every win but I felt kind of weird about it. I was also expecting this other challenge. So it was almost this incomplete feeling. Then getting the opportunity to fight someone like (Renato) Moicano, who was top five in ’45 at one point. (He) is now up at ’55, that’s a real challenge. So that’s pretty exciting.”
The last-minute, previous bout against Mike Breeden at UFC Fight Night: Santos vs Walker saw Hernandez get back to his winning ways.
The victory came via knockout in less than 90 seconds and he has no complaints about how the story of that fight unfurled.
“Getting a knockout, I was happy to get out of there. Job well done. I wasn’t too upset about it.”
Hernandez vs Moicano
Hernandez’s work at Factory X lately is honing aspects to his game. To the point where there’s tangible growth on a fight-to-fight basis in his last three camps with that gym.
The 29-year-old Texas native now looks to put together back-to-back victories here and accrue momentum in the form of a winning streak.
His last two career wins have been via first-round knockouts and Hernandez sees a possible scenario where this fight could play out the same.
“Potentially, this fight could be anything like that. It just depends on what style he brings to me. I absolutely can see a first-round knockout. But I can also see me breaking him and pressing him for three rounds. I don’t want to say too much about it. But there’s a few fights that I can picture and equate it to. Where I either have to fight a very calculated smart fight for three rounds. Or he gives me something to work with and I can take him out in one.”
