Thiago Moises is back in the cage at UFC Winnipeg, facing Gauge Young with a chance to start climbing again after a sharp setback in May 2025. The 30-year-old Brazilian says he believes he has everything it takes to win the UFC belt.
Moises enters the bout with an 8-7 UFC record, a mark that reflects both the level of opposition he has met and the uneven path he has taken since joining the promotion in 2018. He said he wants to beat Young convincingly and keep winning, pointing to the fight in Winnipeg as the next step in a career he still believes can reach the top.
The confidence is coming from a camp he describes as the best of his life. After the first-round knockout loss to Jared Gordon in May 2025, Moises had planned to book another fight sooner, but instead made a full-time move to Sao Paulo and settled in with Fighting Nerds. He said he is happy in Brazil, close to his family and especially motivated by his daughter.
That reset matters because Moises is not speaking like a fighter trying to survive; he is speaking like one who thinks the biggest win of his career is still ahead of him. “People might say, ‘Man, you’re crazy, you’re coming off a loss to Jared Gordon,’ but I believe in myself, I believe in my potential,” he said. “I know I have what it takes to get there.”
His belief is tied in part to Charles Oliveira, whom he called “a beast” and a major source of inspiration. Moises said Oliveira’s inconsistent run in the UFC and later turnaround showed him that a fighter can rebound and still make a championship run. Oliveira had only 10 wins in his first 19 UFC appearances before going on to win the 155-pound title and later the BMF belt, a path Moises clearly sees as a template for his own comeback.
Young arrives with momentum of his own. The 25-year-old earned his first octagon victory with a decision over Maheshate in August 2025 and enters UFC Winnipeg at 1-1 in the promotion. Moises said Young is technical and dangerous, but added that he has already faced top strikers and some of the best the UFC has to offer.
That is the friction point in this matchup: Moises has more experience, but Young has the kind of freshness that can unsettle a fighter trying to turn a career back toward the title picture. Moises has faced Beneil Dariush on short notice and has also shared the cage with Islam Makhachev and Benoit Saint-Denis, and he has beaten King Green, Alexander Hernandez, Michael Johnson and Melquizael Costa. Young, by contrast, is still trying to build a résumé that matches his ambition.
For Moises, the next chapter starts with the same ingredients he says are finally in place: his team, his family and his belief that the division still has room for him. If he beats Young the way he says he can, the talk about a comeback stops being theory and starts looking like a plan.
