Mural in San Ysidro celebrates Tijuana’s Brandon Moreno’s UFC win

The artist Mode Orozco did it again: a nighttime mural to celebrate the triumph of Tijuana’s Brandon Moreno, who on Saturday night was crowned UFC interim flyweight champion.

The spray-paint mural depicting Moreno with the Mexican flag, was painted at the San Ysidro Boulevard exit off the Interstate 805 toward Tijuana.

The idea took hold Saturday night as soon as the fight ended against Kai Kara-France at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Orozco, who lives in San Diego, grabbed his spray paint cans and chose the wall behind a supermarket where he was already contemplating painting a mural.

Something similar happened in June 2021 when Moreno became the first Mexican-born UFC champion by defeating Brazilian Deiveson Figueiredo by submission.

By the next morning, a mural of Moreno painted by Orozco was already being admired in Colonia Libertad, a neighborhood in Tijuana.

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Excitement is such, that a mural was painted overnight.

This is the fourth mural of Moreno painted by Orozco, but the first to be painted in San Diego.

“I think a lot of people were waiting to see what we were going to do,” Orozco said. “Last night I was very excited and said ‘again he was a champion, again we paint him.’”

Orozco started after 9 p.m. Saturday and continued nonstop Sunday. Once he announced his mural on social media, friends arrived to help, he said.

For Orozco, it was important to celebrate Moreno’s Mexican roots, especially in a border community like San Ysidro.

“It’s about conveying where you come from and what you can accomplish,” he explained.

Orozco received the backing to do the mural from the Border Public Art Committee, an initiative of the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce created to promote art in the community.

Monday morning, Moreno shared on his Instagram stories a video that shows Orozco creating the mural.

He also left a message on Orozco’s Instagram post: “Again, I’m super thankful for this gesture, friends,” Moreno wrote.

Mural in tribute to Brandon Moreno by artist Mode Orozco. It is located at the San Ysidro Boulevard exit on I-805 towards Tijuana.

(Alexandra Mendoza/ U-T)

“To have a Mode mural here is an honor,” said Gerardo Meza, Border Public Art Committee chairman. “We support him with the wall and the program we have to bring art to San Ysidro.”

Meza, who has also done other murals in San Ysidro, said that the group had already contemplated the possibility that a mural would be painted at the site should Moreno win the fight.

“He told us what he wanted to do and his way of working,” Meza said. “It’s not very usual to want to start a mural at night. By the time the fight was over (Orozco) was ready.”

Orozco also painted a mural in Tijuana after the death of beloved Mexican singer Vicente Fernandez.