UFC Paris was an excellent card. Let’s give a full main card breakdown and analysis of the mid-day fights, focusing on the main event between Renato Moicano and Benoit Saint-Denis.
Renato Moicano vs. Benoit Saint-Denis
The main event in France features a fun stylistic matchup between two lightweights who operate out of different stances.
Staple Info: Renato Moicano
- Record: 19-5-1 MMA, 11-5 UFC
- Height: 5'11"
- Age: 35
- Weight: 155 lbs.
- Reach: 72"
- Last fight: TKO win over Jalin Turner (April 13, 2024)
- Camp: American Top Team (Florida)
- Stance/striking style: Orthodox/muay Thai
- Risk management: Good
Staple Info: Benoit Saint Denis
- Record: 13-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC
- Height: 5'11"
- Age: 28
- Weight: 155 lbs.
- Reach: 73"
- Last fight: Knockout loss to Dustin Poirier (March 9, 2024)
- Camp: CYFIT (France)
- Stance/striking style: Southpaw/Muay Thai
- Risk management: Fair
Striking with a Southpaw
Known as the "God of War," Benoit Saint-Denis is a southpaw who slings his left shin with impunity.
Whether Saint-Denis is variating his kicks to the body or the head, he is good about counter-balancing his attacks with hard punches on the follow-up. Saint-Denis has also made more of a concerted effort to prod with body punches in recent outings, which only adds to the southpaw double-attack dynamic that he brings to the table.
That said, Saint-Denis' borderline reckless aggression can expose some porous defense that leaves the 28-year-old open to counters.
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Enter Renato Moicano.
Despite stepping onto the UFC scene with submissions being his forte, Moicano quickly demonstrated that he was paying proper attention to all parts of his game - including his striking.
Steadily developing a muay Thai arsenal, Moicano can either stalk or stick and move, using hard kicks from both sides. Striking in combination when feeling in stride, the 35-year-old does increasingly better at punching his way in and out of the pocket.
Whether Moicano is coming forward or countering, his hook, cross and uppercut triggers appear to be deeply rooted, committing to a response each time. When facing southpaws, Moicano will still smartly utilize his lead hand but mainly looks to counter when finding himself in open-stance affairs (which isn't the worst idea in the world given the potential offerings his opponent could provide).
Potential Grappling Threats
Given that both fighters come from grappling bases, no one should be shocked if either man attempts to take things to the ground this weekend.
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An aggressive pressure-grappler at his core, Saint-Denis has little issue when it comes to implementing his game on the opposition. Although Saint-Denis may not have the most elegant setups for his shots, the 28-year-old is a relentless worker once he can corral people up against the fence.
From body locks to chains off of the single-leg, Saint-Denis almost resembles a honey badger in closed quarters. And when Saint-Denis can establish any kind of riding position, he’s quick to get to work with punishing strikes and opportunistic submission holds.
That said, Moicano - a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt - is not exactly a slouch in close. Moicano has also spent a good portion of his childhood practicing judo, which means that he should at least be familiar with some of the offensive and defensive stylings of Saint-Denis.
Since moving up to the UFC's lightweight division, Moicano has become a much more aggressive grappler. Moicano still shows the level-changing shots that he wielded at featherweight, but the American Top Team product arguably gets a bulk of his work done from the clinch.
Favoring the bodylock position, Moicano likes to combo his threats that range from shuck-bys to the back to Polish-style, step-around takedowns that force his opponents to pick their poison.
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Once Moicano can establish a dominant position, he quickly demonstrates why he made MMA Junkie's Top 10 when it comes to rear-naked choke artists in MMA.
A Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt primed to get behind his opposition, Moicano needs very little daylight to get to his preferred kill zone. And once Moicano can establish his presence from the rear, he shows incredibly slick grip deconstructions that smoothly cut through his victim’s defenses like a hot knife going through butter.
Odds
The oddsmakers and the public are currently favoring the French fighter, listing Saint-Denis -290 and Moicano +215 via FanDuel.
Prediction
Although I don't disagree with who is favored, I believe that Moicano is a live underdog in this spot.
Aside from the fact Saint-Denis has still yet to prove himself positively past the second round, the "God of War" will provide Moicano with plenty of counter opportunities due to the sheer nature of his aggression. And despite Saint-Denis having solid wrestle-ups with some confident front-choke defense in tow, the Frenchman is not beyond being taken down due to his proclivity to sometimes surrender underhooks in favor of overhooks.
Still, I can't help but suspect that this will be an incredibly tough storm for Moicano to weather from both a size and stylistic perspective.
Moicano may technically have a positive record opposite UFC-level southpaws at 2-1, but all three fighters in said sample were able to repeatedly hurt the Brazilian with left-sided strikes, dropping or stopping him in most cases. Couple that with the bodywork that Saint-Denis brings to the table (something that was a crux with my Rafael Fiziev and Rafael dos Anjos picks), and I find myself semi-reluctantly siding with the betting favorite in this spot.
I wouldn't mind being wrong, but the official pick is Saint-Denis by knockout in Round 1.
Prediction: Saint-Denis inside the distance
Aftermath:
In the main event “Money” Moicano does it again. He put on one of the most dominant first rounds in recent memory, getting a 10-8 scorecard on all judges’ scorecards.
I anticipated going into the fight that BSD’s body kick and his overall physicality would present a lot of problems for Moicano but he came in with a very intelligent game plan, catching the kick and bulldozing Saint-Denis to the ground.
Though Benoit is extremely explosive with his sweeps off bottom Renanto was able to show just how high level his ground game is by using every time a sweep was attempted to advance position and brutalize the Frenchman with nasty top game, leaving him in a pool of his own blood.
Despite Moicano dropping the second round it was only a matter of time that the doctor would step in as both of his eyes were on the verge of being fully shut. This performance is now only even more impressive knowing that he came into the bout with an AC Joint Sprain, one of the most painful shoulder injuries.
Moicano has had such an incredible career resurgence and I see no reason why he shouldn’t be fighting for a position near the top 5 in his next match.
While I think there would be clear levels shown if Renato faced the true lightweight elite, he has all the skills and personality to continue to be a fan favorite at 155 for the next few years.
After all the damage he has taken this year, I think BSD needs to take significant time off to focus on skill building. At the top of the sport having such a limited skillset and relying so much on just being physical will not get you by, this is not 185, this is 155 where having such massive holes will have you bound to get exposed.
Other Fights on the Card
Nassourdine Imavov vs. Brendan Allen
A pivotal middleweight fight was a bit underwhelming as I feel neither side’s stock was raised after. Allen had a phenomenal first round getting an explosive takedown and keeping control of Imavov despite not doing much damage of note.
From that point on despite looking improved and staying competitive on the feet Allen continued to stick to the game plan of trying to get it to the ground but a now turned on Imavov along with them no longer being dry minimized any success he would have in the grappling.
Allen continued to shoot ugly takedowns that were reversed by Imavov and from there he would do enough damage on top to clearly win the last two rounds.
While Nassourdine did what he needed to to win, I still view him as just that level below championship caliber. Imavov is very well rounded, quick hands, a solid ground game, and has an impressive chin, but there is no one skill he has that I think makes him stand out over the championship quality fighters log jammed at the top of middleweight.
Imavov just based on resume deserves a #1 contender fight but it is hard to say exactly who that will be against considering how muddied this division has become at the top.
For Allen, despite having phenomenal jiu-jitsu, specifically elite back takes, and a seemingly improving striking game, he still has yet to get a win that moves me and showed very poor fight IQ in his best opportunity to finally get his statement victory.
Joanderson Brito vs. William Gomes
Brito certainly had an underwhelming performance as such a large favorite, but this still felt like a pretty brutal home town based robbery in the favor of Gomes. Round two was clearly in favor of Brito and while the 1st and 3rd were competitive, I thought he did the more significant work in round one even if you want to give the final round to Gomes.
This unfortunately ended up being a bit of a lose-lose fight as Brito’s stock as one of the most promising featherweight prospects lowered from a underwhelming performance and Gomes’ should’ve been able to make a huge statement by winning as an underdog on home soil but the majority of the public considered it to be a robbery.
Bryan Battle vs. Kevin Jousset
Bryan Battle is becoming a fan favorite and for very good reason. Other than his hilarious moments after the fights are over and his walkout, he also continues to improve every single fight and looks like he is ranked material.
Battle got hit with some clean shots but was willing to take one to land in combination and eventually poured on too much damage for Jousset to survive. He is just so composed and slick in the pocket and mix that with his length along with what he showed off in the Thai clinch he is gonna be a challenging person to beat.
I think it’s time to give Battle the Neil Magny test either as a feature fight on a crowded fight night or as the headliner of the prelims on a PPV in the States.
Morgan Charriere vs. Gabriel Miranda
Charriere came in as a massive favorite and did exactly what he should have and more. Everytime Miranda tried to duel in the grappling he would either deny it entirely or overpower him and get into top position and on the feet it wasn’t even a fight.
A brutal short left hook off the break of a clinch was the finishing shot and it was beautiful, no wind up, just straight on the button and put his lights out.
Fares Ziam vs. Matt Frevola
Despite an array of impressive performances on this card, Ziam may be the one I walked away most impressed with. I was leaning Frevola based on Ziam previously being able to be offensively grappled and the Steamroller having very explosive takedown entries but despite being taken to the mat and threatened with submissions early, Fares weather the storm and took over from there.
Whenever Frevola would try to get in range he was getting countered and Ziam would always slide just out of range to avoid one of Matt’s big overhangs.
Fares was even able to implement some offensive grappling of his own, getting close to a RNC towards the end of round two. Then in round three Ziam secured a KO of the year contender with a brutal knee as Frevola was trying to exit the clinch, then some unnecessary but nasty GNP before the ref pulled him off.
| Fighter 1 | Fighter 2 | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Renato Moicano | Benoit Saint-Denis | Moicano wins | Dominant first round, TKO due to doctor stoppage |
| Nassourdine Imavov | Brendan Allen | Imavov wins | Decision victory |
| Joanderson Brito | William Gomes | Gomes wins | Controversial decision victory |
| Bryan Battle | Kevin Jousset | Battle wins | TKO victory |
| Morgan Charriere | Gabriel Miranda | Charriere wins | KO victory |
| Fares Ziam | Matt Frevola | Ziam wins | KO victory |