Who's UFC headliner John Moraga? Even his coach needed a TV show to find out

If you’re like a lot of MMA fans out there, your first reaction upon hearing that John Moraga would be the next challenger for the UFC flyweight title was … who?

After all, Moraga has only two UFC fights to his credit, both of which were on the untelevised prelims. The guy has been in more Facebook fights than the Winklevoss twins, and now here he is fighting for a UFC title on FOX.

So who is he?

Turns out even one of Moraga’s own coaches has wondered the same thing. John Crouch first met Moraga when he started training at The Lab in Glendale, Ariz., a couple years ago, he said, though the fighter wasn’t exactly easy to get to know inside the gym.

“He’s really quiet,” Crouch told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “He works really hard and is a great teammate, but he doesn’t say a whole lot. He just goes about getting his work done. He’s one of the most dedicated guys I know, but you don’t hear a lot from him. That’s just not his style. He’s not one of the vocal leaders in the gym, but he leads by example.”

According to Crouch, he heard of Moraga well before he actually met him in person. Rumors of a tough ex-wrestler from West Phoenix drifted into the gym, and eventually the man himself followed, even though the outlook for fighters as far down the scale as Moraga wasn’t so bright. In fact, that very concern almost kept Moraga out of MMA altogether, even as Arizona State wrestling teammates such as Cain Velasquez were planning their careers.

“We actually were talking one day about what we were going to do with the rest of our lives,” Moraga said. “I was like, man, I have no clue. [Velasquez] said, ‘I’m going to fight.’ I was just like, I can’t since155 [pounds] is too big. I’d probably get knocked out.”

Moraga found his way into MMA gyms the same way a lot of former college wrestlers do. Some local fighter would have a bout lined up against a guy with a good double-leg, and Moraga’s name would come up as a sparring partner who could help him practice staying off his back. One thing led to another, and soon he wandered into The Lab, where he met Crouch.

But even after training Moraga for a couple years, Crouch said he didn’t necessarily feel like he knew much about his fighter aside from what he saw in the gym. Then he saw the “Road to the Octagon” special featuring Moraga, Crouch said, and it was like he was getting to know his fighter all over again.

“I know John in the gym, but seeing him in his element, actually hearing him talk that much, man, that was new,” Crouch said. “I texted him yesterday and told him, ‘You blew me away.’ I really love Johnny, but I’m a bigger fan than before after seeing that thing.”

With that increased exposure comes increased pressure, however. The question now is whether Moraga can handle the jump from the prelims to the main event, and with a title on the line on live network TV. But that’s the least of Crouch’s concerns, he said, because there are some things about his fighter he understood well before seeing him on TV.

“He wouldn’t care if it was in the parking lot in front of nobody, or if it was the main event,” Crouch said. “It’s not going to make a difference to him.”

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