On Sept. 28 UFC night 243 was held at the Accor Arena in Paris, France, Renato Moicano faced off against Benoit Saint Denis. Moicano sprang into this lightweight class bout with a fervor that saw his opponent Saint Denis struggling to resist him the entire first round. Within a few minutes of the first round beginning Moicano had Saint Denis struggling to break free of his holds.
Despite Moicano’s struggle to keep Saint Denis pinned, he still managed to thrash Saint Denis multiple times. Bloodied Saint. Denis continued to try to escape Moicano’s grapples right up until the end of the first round. With his lacerated and swollen face, Benoit Saint Denis began the second round looking quite determined to turn the match around. Moicano took the initiative once again testing Saint Denis’s weakened defenses. Saint Denis did his best to return Moicano’s strikes, but the swelling in his face left him dazed and much slower than in the first round. Slicked with blood and one of this eyes swollen shut Benoit Saint Denis soldiered his way through the second round refusing to let Renato Moicano pin him in another hold. Ultimately, the fight would be called due to Saint Denis’s facial swelling being too severe, and Moicano would be declared the victor. During the post-fight interview Saint Denis would use an interpreter to say “It wasn’t my day, this sport is hard but incredible,” He would go on to detail the reasons for the loss saying “In that first round I came out and I was a little bit sleepy, and it allowed him to do enough damage to then play the Matador in the later rounds.”
Benoit Saint Denis would post a statement to his Instagram to his fans: “Thank you to everyone for your unwavering support. Proud to have been able to represent France in the octagon and at home. Respect to my opponent for facing me at home, and congratulations to Renato Moicano. God tests us, and that’s nothing to compare with what I could experience.”
UFC CEO Dana White was quite impressed with moicano’s performance, but he speculated that Moicano might have gotten lucky with Saint Denis’s injury. In a post-fight interview he was quoted saying “It was incredible what he was able to do with that injury, and sitting in the corner was never even a concern.” When asked about potential match ups for future fights with Moicano White said “We won’t talk about Moicano for a couple more weeks, “Also adding. “We won’t even talk about him for a couple more weeks. First of all, you saw what happened to him. It’s going to be a minute before he’s even discussed.” Which of course put a discussion of Moicano’s future in the sport on hold for the foreseeable future.
Given his explosive performance in his fight against Benoit Saint Denis, the future holds opportunities for Moicano to climb to the upper ranks, and perhaps we might see a new champion in the making.
