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First Things First

The UFC is returning to Paris this weekend. They’re bringing their nation’s favorite action fighter, Benoit Saint Denis, to take on gritty veteran Renato Moicano. Moicano has an excellent ground game so we’re to look at what makes him special, and if it even matters against BSD.

Money Moicano Cashes In On Opportunities

Renato Moicano is approaching his 10 year mark in the UFC. He debuted in the promotion as a featherweight before the Reebok deal was even signed.

Moicano has been floating around the top 10 as interesting all around fighter for a while. He’s tall, jabs well, and when you look at his record you see a lot of rear naked chokes.

You read that and assume you’ll see a fighter that carefully pokes and prods until they can move through positions.

That is not Moicano.

Moicano stabs, stings, and runs into clinches. He doesn’t set up the smooth passing you’d expect from a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt. But he does make the best use of the rules of MMA.

He doesn’t just grapple. Moicano punches, pounds, and pounces on whatever opportunities he creates.

Technical Takeaways

If I had to use one word to describe Moicano it would be opportunistic. And that’s not necessarily a negative. Let’s take a look at how Moicano jumps on his opponents and gets his finishes.

Feet, Floor, Finishes

The second there’s any space Moicano is onto the next position. Usually that’s the back and it’s ending with him taking a rear naked choke.

Moicano is fast to get to the back but he often starts working towards that direction from the feet. What I mean is Moicano hurts his foes, creates a scramble, and uses the chaos to get behind them to attack his signature submission, the rear naked choke.

Watch how Moicano hurts Anthony Hernandez, makes him move, and then chases better and better positions while hitting the whole time.

While Moicano isn’t the most flashy wrestler he does find his way into clinches a lot. Check out how he used his movement to get inside Damir Hadžović’s punches. This fight was over before it ever really got going.

When Moicano isn’t speed running his fights he’s still coming forward working behind his jab. He often uses these long strikes to prod people into positions where they can be taken down more easily.

Now let’s look at how he pours out offense once the fight is on the floor.

Winning On The Ground

Moicano is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt. Since he debuted in the UFC, most of his opponents haven’t been able to hang with him on the ground. Look at how smooth his debut ended.

While Moicano might give up under hooks, generally, he does a good job floating over his opponents’ hooks to circumvent their guard.

Against lesser grapplers, Moicano is able to make use of his long limbs to stay on top and keep hurting them.

Moicano was towering featherweight and he’s still long for lightweight. He makes use of this length with turks, grapevines, and hitting from far relatively away like he does above.

But length is not always an advantage. Often, it’s a double edged sword.

If the longer can fighter use their reach, they can keep their opponents stuck away from them. Flummoxed. But when their opponent gets inside, it’s that much more difficult for the longer fighter to get their lanky limbs back inside. And I think this is a serious problem in Moicano’s next fight.

Can Moicano Hold On To This Opportunity?

You’ll commonly see Moicano passing long and tall. He digs for under hooks, turks his opponents’ legs, and turns his hips around guards. This is a giant liability against Benoit Saint Denis.

All of Benoit Saint Denis’s lightweight fights have ended early. Other than Dustin Poirier, no one has been able to withstand his pace and punishment. Even fighting from his back, Saint Denis works like a rabid dog to get back to where he can score from.

And after jumping to an ill advised guillotine on Matt Frevlola, Saint Denis fought back to get on top.

I’m not claiming that Saint Denis is a better grappler than Moicano. I’m saying the way he fights for under hooks to kick his opponents off is a huge problem for a man like Moicano that often reaches, creates scrambles, and loses under hooks.

Moicano is a good risk taker. He jumps on what he creates and what his opponents give him.

That also means he can be overzealous.

Moicano reaches. He gets hurt a lot. And reaching against a young, hungry Benoit Saint Denis sounds like a recipe for a short night.

What can we bet on? Action. Both men hit and get hit a lot. And with that as the backdrop, how can you not pick the younger, fresher, forward pressing Saint Denis?

I don’t know how long it will last. I do know that unless Moicano manages to jump on Saint Denis’s back in transition he’s most likely going to take an L. And can the battle worn Moicano stay composed under the fire that Saint Denis lights long enough to find that opportunity?

We’ll be here to take a closer look at the action after the fact either way. Come back here Friday if you want to learn about one of the UFC’s best submission finishers at middleweight.

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