When a fighter is asked for their favorite performance of their career, you do not expect them to say it came in the only defeat in the career but that was the answer for bantamweight Kin Moy.
Back at Bellator 123 last year, he faced Steve Garcia in a matchup of then undefeated 135 pound fighters and Garcia walked away with a decision victory on that evening.
While Moy (6-1) admitted to The MMA Report that he considers his fight against Garcia is favorite performance, but he understands that he made two crucial mistakes in that fight.
“I think that the biggest thing that I learned was that I really need to — I have always been a pressure fighter but I think I need to be more aggressive,” Moy said on The MMA Report Live. “I feel like there was times I did some damage but I sort of backed of and let him regain his composure. I think going forward, I really want to make sure that when I win exchanges, I want to win it big. I want to keep pushing forward and not let someone off the hook if I hurt that.”
“That was one thing and I think another thing was just to really have more faith in my corners and our communication. It was interesting because during the fight, one of the first shots he hit me with was a body kick to the liver and it hurt real bad. In my mind, from that point on, I thought I was losing the stand up and my coaches would have told me that if they felt that was the case but in my mind, I was losing the exchanges.”
“In the third round, I went for that takedown thinking that my only chance was to get it on the ground. Upon re-watching the fight later, I felt from an outside perspective that I was ahead on the standup. Going for the takedown is ultimately what go me in that triangle choke, which is probably what cost me the match.”
Following the fight against Garcia, he took a fight in December and scored his third career victory in the first round as he defeated Fernando Perez by TKO at Cage Fighting Xtreme 26. He will return to the cage next month at CES MMA 28 on March 13 against Joey Gomez and along with expecting to get a victory, he expects this will be a high pace fight.
“I actually have a lot of respect and admiration for Joey,” Moy said. “I think as a fight fan, I really like to see beautiful, crisp technique and he has some of the text book straight punches in the game. He throws them so fast and so straight. Picture perfect one, two. That is one thing I see and on the other hand, I think compared to any of the opponents he has fought before, I bring a completely different pace and pressure. I am more defensively sound. A lot of the people he has fought before were not really able to handle someone aggressively throwing heat at them.”
“In the past, I feel like I have fought enough people who can do that. Maybe not the same level as Joey Gomez, but who can do that. I am able to use footwork and have movement to mitigate damage and not just hit straight up. I see a really high pace, blood bath of fight coming up. I think we are both going to take some damage in this fight. I see myself coming out on top.”