Sergio Moraes is now just days away from his first appearance for Taura MMA, at the promotion’s tenth event. This comes after a fourteen-fight UFC career that has spanned the last eight years and resulted in Moraes putting together a respectable 8-5-1 record at the highest levels of the sport. The two time IBJJF World Champion and third degree BJJ black belt had put together some impressive wins over the years, including the likes of Neil Magny, Ben Saunders, and Tim Means. Sadly, Moraes has been winless since the end of 2018 and lost his last three fights in a row, with the last two being by knockout.
This is what led to Sergio Moraes being cut from the UFC in November of 2019 and after a year away from the sport, the 38 year old has now signed for a relatively new promotion in Taura MMA. He will make his debut on October 23rd at Taura MMA 10, alongside another well-established name in BJJ and MMA, Rousimar Palhares. Moraes spoke to Bloody Elbow ahead of his first fight for the promotion against Jared Revel and had nothing but good things to say about the UFC:
“I don’t think they were unfair. I was going through a bad moment and I think things happen the way they are meant to. You can’t cry about it. I’m very hard on myself. It’s hard for me to live with a loss. A loss is always bad and I can’t complain when I’m having bad results. The UFC was a great experience. They’ve treated me very well.”
“Retiring is something that doesn’t even cross my mind.” Moraes continued. “That’s a hard switch to flip, but it’ll have to flip eventually. I thought a lot about opening my own jiu-jitsu gym. I’ve been entertaining the thought, I think this is the closest thing I have at the moment. Opening up my own gym and giving the students a top-notch kind of service.”