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Brendan Allen offered no excuses for a poor performance at UFC Paris that led to the end of his seven fight win streak after falling to Nassourdine Imavov by unanimous decision.

It was a strong start but a rough finish for Allen on Saturday after he scored an early takedown on Imavov to control him throughout the opening round. Unfortunately, Allen just couldn’t find the same level of success in the next two rounds as Imavov stuffed his grappling attempts and won the majority of the exchanges on the feet.

In the end, Imavov won with all three judges scoring the fight 29-28 across the board.

“It wasn’t my night tonight,” Allen wrote on Instagram. “Made bad decisions. Bad adjustments. I did something wrong and hat’s off to Imavov. It was his night, it wasn’t mine. It sucks. I’m disappointed in myself. But luckily I’m young, I’ll be back. Try to be better. Thanks to everyone for the support, thanks for the love. I still think I’ll be champion one day but just another long journey to the top again.”

In a separate post, Allen once again placed the blame on himself for a bad night at the office while revealing his potential timeline for a return to action.

“A game of ups and downs and shoulda woulda coulda’s,” Allen said. “Fought like shit and lost a close decision to a top five guy in his home. I will be back even better next March or April.”

While certainly not the result he wanted, Allen may not lose a ton of ground in the middleweight division thanks to Imavov’s sudden rise up the ranks.

Since falling to future UFC champion Sean Strickland back in 2023, Imavov has gone undefeated in his past four fights including a win over one-time title challenger Jared Cannonier back in June, which set him up for the co-main event slot at the card in Paris on Saturday.

Following his win, Imavov called for a title shot, although it’s tough to imagine that wish is granted right now given the landscape at 185 pounds.

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“Boring”
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UFC

‘Money’ Moicano is still chasing a head coach gig on The Ultimate Fighter opposite Paddy Pimblett, who he vows to hurt if ‘The Baddy’ is unwise enough to face him.

First there was Renato Carneiro, then there was Renato Moicano. Now there is only Money Moicano, and Money Moicano is looking to make some big moves and make some big money after routing Benoit Saint-Denis in the main event of UFC Paris (watch the highlights here).

Moicano came into Paris an underdog against the imposing Saint-Denis, but he dispatched the former special forces soldier with relative ease, taking him down and battering his face to the point where doctors stopped the fight after the second round. Following that fight he asked for an even easier fight against Paddy Pimblett or Dan Hooker.

At the UFC Paris post-fight press conference, he suggested it would be a mistake for Pimblett to take him on.

“Don’t accept the fight or I will elbow your skull,” Moicano warned. “Please don’t accept the fight. I’m gonna hurt you. I’m gonna elbow your skull.”

As if Renato’s win over “BSD” wasn’t impressive enough, he did it with a badly broken shoulder that will take a while to heal. That seems to make him a perfect candidate to coach the next season of The Ultimate Fighter when it starts filming in spring 2025. There’d be no better foil than Paddy Pimblett, and the project interests him greatly even if coaching TUF isn’t known to be the most financially lucrative gig in MMA.

“I think it’s going to be a huge exposure, right?” he said about the opportunity. “And right now, I am looking for exposure. I’m looking for cameras because I have been in UFC for 10 years this year. It will be 10 years. And 3 years ago, nobody knew me.”

“I always worked hard, I have always put in the work. But it doesn’t matter if you are the best fighter in the world and nobody knows. So I want more cameras. I want more people talking about my name in MMA because that way I can bring more attention, and I can make my case to fight for the belt eventually.”

We hope the win over Saint-Denis helps Moicano rise up the rankings. A performance like that should, but these days the rankings seem to operate on a swap system where you take the spot of the guy you beat. “Money” was ranked No. 11 at lightweight coming into UFC Paris, while “God of War” was No. 12.

An ass kicking like we witnessed on Saturday night would hopefully get him on the doorstep of top five, but we’ll have to wait and see what the rankings look like when they’re released early this coming week.

As for Paddy Pimblett, he responded quickly to Moicano’s post-fight trash talk. “The Baddy” recently teased that a December fight might be in the cards for him next, but that he might have other obligations to deal with instead — like preparing for The Ultimate Fighter? Why not a December fight AND a coaching gig on The Ultimate Fighter? That’s our vote. Let us know what yours is for Moicano and Pimblett moving forward in the comments below.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Lightweights Trey Ogden and Thiago Moises are expected to clash at the upcoming UFC event scheduled on Jan. 11 with a location for the card still to be determined.

Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed the matchup to MMA Fighting on Sunday with bout agreements issued for the fight.

Undefeated in his past three fights, Ogden looks to keep his momentum going when he returns in January. The 34-year-old veteran, who also runs his own gym based out of Kansas, most recently dispatched Loik Radzhabov by decision back in July.

Overall, Ogden sports a 3-2 record with one no contest in his UFC career.

As for Moises, the Brazilian looks to get back on track following a decision loss to Ludovit Klein back in July. Prior to that setback, Moises took out Mitch Ramirez with leg kicks and he’s built a 3-2 record overall in his past five appearances in the UFC.

Ogden vs. Moises is the first confirmed matchup for the card on Jan. 11 with more bouts expected to be added in the coming weeks. The UFC hasn’t officially announced any events yet for 2025, although it’s likely that schedule will come together in the near future.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Renato Moicano battered Benoit Saint Denis to earn a stoppage win on Saturday at UFC Paris, but by all accounts he shouldn’t have even been there.

Approximately three to four weeks before Saturday’s event, Moicano suffered a serious shoulder injury that could have easily knocked him out of the fight. Instead, Moicano fought through the pain and scored an impressive win to continue his ascension up the lightweight ranks.

“Honestly, I was surprised when he told me the initial decision was to stay in the fight,” Moicano’s manager Oren Hodak from KO Reps told MMA Fighting on Sunday. “Luckily his team trained smart and they made it to the fight.”

X-ray photos provided to Kevin Iole show the extent of the separated shoulder that Moicano suffered prior to his fight. Moicano fought through the injury even with the shoulder still showing damage during moments in the fight.

Remarkably, Moicano withstood the injury and went on to deliver a performance where he scored with vicious shots throughout the opening round that caused significant cuts and swelling on Saint Denis’ face. While the highly touted prospect from France survived the barrage in the opening round, he still showed the aftereffects from the damage done when the fight restarted in the second.

The five-minute session ended with doctors determining that Saint Denis couldn’t see properly out of his right eye due to the tremendous swelling and the fight was stopped.

The victory moved Moicano to 4-0 in his past four outings, including stoppage wins over Saint Denis, Jalin Turner and Brad Riddell.

Following the fight, Moicano called for “easy money” matchups like Paddy Pimblett or Dan Hooker when he returns to action, most likely sometime in 2025.

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