Alex Morono eyes KO win over Niko Price at UFC 302 to avenge 2017 loss: “Going to be a fun fight”

Alex Morono jumped at the chance to rematch Niko Price at UFC 302.

After Morono defeated Court McGee in April, he returned to the gym to prepare for any short-notice fight that came up. Shortly after his win, Jeremiah Wells fell out of his fight against Price and Morono called the UFC to get his rematch.

“Hell yeah, this is how I like to do things. I actually was scoping out this card because it had a lot of welterweights, and I was happy to take any one of them fell out. Sure enough the next day Jeremiah Wells pulled out and I ran to my phone and called my coach and he contacted the UFC and within a couple of hours, we had a contract. This one I had seven weeks’ notice, I was banking on this being two weeks’ notice, so I had a full fight camp,” Morono said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com.

Morono and Price fought back in 2017 and it was Price who won by second-round knockout. However, the fight was overturned to a No Contest due to Price testing positive for marijuana.

Heading into UFC 302, Morono says this is a legit rematch, despite the first fight being seven years ago. But, despite losing the first time, Morono says he took a lot of good things away from the bout.

“It’s funny we have both had 10 fights in the UFC since our first fight. I reference my fight with Niko to my students all the time because I tell them that was arguably the best performance of my life and I lost. Round one, it was the best round of MMA I have had and I made one mistake and got caught,” Morono said. “The biggest difference between now and then is Coach Sayif guiding me through those dangerous waters. It’s certainly a rematch.”

Against Niko Price, Alex Morono is the betting favorite but he doesn’t pay attention to that. Instead, the Fortis MMA product knows he can’t overlook Price as he did get knocked out by him before.

But, Morono is confident he has leveled up since then and expects to KO Price this time around to get his revenge.

“I’m 21 fights in the UFC, 40 fights total, it’s the same answer every time, but this one is going to be a fun fight. I’m looking for the knockout. Knockout is a gold medal, submission win is a silver medal, decision is a bronze medal, I’m just looking to getting a medal,” Alex Morono said.

If Morono gets his hand raised, he will improve to 14-6 and one NC in the UFC. Although he would be near a ranked opponent, Morono says he doesn’t care about that. Instead, he just wants to be as active as possible.

“What it does is it gets me paid, they re-signed me when I got the fight offer. Sean Shelby re-upped me and gave me a great pay raise, the UFC has taken care of me very well, I’m making more money than I ever thought I would make fighting. But, it lets me be active, I don’t care about the rankings, I’ll be ready to step in on short notice if something happens, but got to get through this one as Niko is a tough out.”