West Australian Steve Erceg loses five-round war to former UFC flyweight champion Brandon Moreno

Steve Erceg’s UFC career is at a crossroads after he lost a third-consecutive fight, failing to topple two-time former champion Brandon Moreno.

The West Australian went the full five rounds with the dual flyweight champion but lost by unanimous decision in the main event at Mexico City.

Erceg (12-4) was looking to rebound from tough defeats to champion Alexandre Pantoja and Kai Kara-France when he stepped into the Octagon.

But Moreno (23-8-2) landed the bigger shots across the 25-minute war to get the victory on all three of the judges scorecards 49-46.

“Nothing surprised me, I thought I landed pretty well but obviously it wasn’t enough,” Erceg said.

“I went five rounds and I will keep getting better, I’ll get back.”

Erceg is now in danger of falling out of the top-10 rankings in the flyweight division and has him well back in the title picture.

Moreno came out firing in the first round, landing some heavy blows through some clinical combinations that had Erceg on the back foot.

Erceg found his range in the second and began to use his jab to push the pace with 14 significant strikes to the head while he created distance with his leg kicks.

All three judges would be award Erceg the third round, but he never built enough momentum across the next three rounds to put Moreno under pressure in the bout.

Moreno however rallied after a nervy second round to begin to close the space on Erceg and land some massive combinations that put the underdog on the backfoot.

And in the end it was enough for the No.2 flyweight to convince the judges he should walk away with the victory.

It was the second time Erceg had gone through a full five rounds in his short UFC career though, which will endear him to matchmakers in the future.