When James Krause was suspended from the UFC – and any fighter continuing to work with him was to meet the same fate – Brandon Moreno was without a trainer ahead of the biggest fight of his life. Sayif Saud revealed that Moreno’s manager contacted him ahead of Moreno’s title fight at UFC 283, stating on The MMA Hour that the only goal from camp Moreno was to recapture the UFC flyweight belt.
“No, I didn’t [talk to James]. I know James, we were colleagues, worked together, and have known each other for a while and whatever that situation ends up being for James it ends up being.
Sayif Saud Took Moreno On After Krause Debacle
I haven’t spoken to him. I wish him the best and I hope that it resolves itself and that it has a good resolution. But I don’t know if that’s being realistic, and I don’t know if that’s even a possibility at this point. The reality is that I spoke with Brandon about it briefly at the beginning, ‘We both know James, we both like James and it’s unfortunate,’ but we both understand what the situation is. Ultimately the only goal was to become the undisputed champion. Everyone else’s feeling and emotions are secondary.
Whoever won this fight won all of the fights. Whoever won this fight won the history. Whoever got this fight, that’s it, history is going to side with them. It was just really important to focus on this fight.”
Saud continued, revealing that the pair were left with very little time to prepare for the fight. “I think it was the first week of December.
It was the week of the [World] MMA Awards because I worked with him that Friday. It was kind of after everything was unveiled, unfortunately, with his situation [involving Krause].
Jason House reached out to me, we talked, I said I would be in there in Vegas cornering someone and going to the awards. I went there and met up with Brandon, and we had our first session.”
Saud also revealed that, in his estimation, Brandon Moreno might be one of the most-liked guys in the fight game. “My only thing is that I wanted to meet with him, train with him, and see how we gel.
As far as Brandon goes, Brandon is one of the most liked f****** guys in MMA. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like Brandon Moreno. He’s just such a lovable, good dude, family man.
I just see him as one of those salt of the Earth guys and he is what he appears to be. Character wise, and personality wise, I don’t think it gets much better than that.”
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