This Thursday starts the 24th season of The Ultimate Fighter, the longest-running sports reality show in history, featuring again the presence of a Mexican fighter, Brandon Moreno.

The show is being aired alongside the third season of TUF Latinoamérica. The last time a national fighter participated was 5 years ago, when Javier Torres was part of Junior Dos Santos' team, who faced Brock Lesnar as the rival coach.

Moreno, a student of coach Raúl Arvizu at Entram Gym in Tijuana, is the champion of the 125-pound weight class in the WFF promotion in Arizona; having the belt was one of the requirements to enter this season, in which Joe Benevidez and Henry Cejudo will be the coaches. The prize for the winner will be a fight with the UFC champion, Demetrious Johnson.

"I'm excited, nervous about the people, I don't know what they're going to say about the first episode. It was very strange, few people spoke Spanish, I had to communicate with others as best as I could," explained Moreno, who maintains a friendship with Cejudo, DJ's last challenger for the flyweight title.

"It was good for me to have people I knew and who spoke my language, it helped me stay more focused. There is no communication, no internet, and I was a little depressed," added the nicknamed 'Assasin Baby', who had to spend over a month without communication with his wife and daughter, "You imagine what it's going to be like, but when they take away your cellphone and you realize that you have no communication at all, you see that it's very different from what you think. This year has been very busy, in January I went to train with José Alday for his camp in Sonora because he had a fight in Japan, it was two weeks. Then I went with Henry to Arizona for three months, I came back here and stayed two more months, and then I went to TUF. My mind is tired and I don't want to travel so much, but I'll have to do it," he added.

As usually happens on the show, the family also goes through tough moments, especially in the uncertainty of what happens during the filming of the fights, "I would like to be closer to my wife and daughter, but they understand that this is not just for fun, it's for our future," explained the fighter.

He has an 8-fight winning streak in the United States, however, the learning during the reality show was enormous, "My level has changed so much and it's strange because it was only a month and a half, but you're training with champions, the ones from TITAN FC, the ones from RFA, the ones from Shooto from Brazil and Japan, a bunch of champions, rubbing shoulders with the best in this sport in the 125-pound division, and I improved a lot," he valued.

After participating in the UFC development program and helping Cejudo prepare for the title fight, he only feels he needs to debut in the promotion, as "It's a bit frustrating, but I hope God blesses me with the opportunity to step into the octagon this year."

Moreno stopped fighting in Mexico four years ago and his name is not well known in local events, as there is not much real competition in the 125-pound division, but he assures that they will recognize him after the show, "They will see another Mexican proving himself against the best in the world, and they will see that we are capable of achieving so many things. The technique at the Mexico level has improved and they will see that we can excel in this sport at a worldwide level. Many people doubt that I'm Mexican, I was born in Tijuana, I studied in public school, I ate chips with chili and all that. I'm going to fight with the heart of a Mexican," he concluded.