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‘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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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Kevin Lee hasn’t missed a beat.

In his first MMA fight in 14 months, Lee (19-8) needed less than two minutes to submit welterweight veteran Thiago Oliveira at Lights Out Championship 17. The bout took place at Hype Athletics in Wayne, Mich., Lee’s home state.

Lee, a one-time interim UFC lightweight title challenger, locked in a tight rear-naked choke that had Oliveira tapping at the 1:58 mark of the first round.

Watch the finish below.

Prior to Saturday’s in-cage appearance, Lee’s most recent MMA appearance was a first-round submission loss to Rinat Fakhretdinov at a July 2023 UFC event, and his most recent win was a unanimous decision over Diego Sanchez at an Eagle FC show in March 2022.

“The Motown Phenom” told MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck he would still like to return to the 155-pound division, where he was formerly a top-10 fighter in the UFC. His long-term goal is to book a matchup with UFC champion Islam Makhachev.

“I want to fight for a world title,” Lee said in an interview with MMA Fighting ahead of the Oliveira fight. “I just want to fight the best guys. Am I hung up on the organizations? Not really. I want to fight the best guys and the guys that really will give me a challenge, who people feel are unbeatable.

“I think it’s a shame I never got to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov. It’s a shame if I don’t ever get to fight Islam in his career. I think I pose threats for those guys that not a lot of other lightweights do, and I think a lot of people would, would agree with that. So it’d be kind of a shame if they go their whole careers and not fight a wrestler like me.”

Lee, 32, isn’t wasting anytime getting back into the groove of competition as he is already set to fight Saul Almeida at a Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA event on Nov. 15 in Biloxi, Miss.

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Bonus Report
| BJPenn.com

UFC Paris went down yesterday (Sat., Sept. 28, 2024) inside Accor Arena in Paris, France, which saw Renato Moicano defeat Benoit Saint Denis, forcing a doctor’s stoppage after slicing him up badly (see it again here). In the co-main event, Nassourdine Imavov secured a huge unanimous decision win over Brendan Allen (recap here).

Biggest Winner: Renato Moicano

For all of the talk of the usual monsters in the Lightweight division, Moicano has been lurking in the shadows for awhile now. But, the Brazilian bomber is ready to step out of the darkness and into the light the Top 10 provides thanks to his impressive four-fight win streak, which includes his demolition of Saint Denis in France. Indeed, Moicano was precise with his ground-and-pound, landing razor-sharp elbows and punches that ultimately busted his foe’s face up pretty good. After 10 minutes, it was so bad that the cage-side doctor had no choice but to put an end to the damage, much to the chagrin of the crowd. Now that Moicano is 6-1 in his last seven fights, he can expect to crash the Top 10, and take part in the bigger fights that comes with it.

Runners Up: Morgan Charriere, Fares Ziam

Imavov notched a huge win over Allen to move up in the rankings, but the win wasn’t very dominant nor entertaining. That’s why we’re giving Charriere and Ziam love this week after their massive knockout wins over Gabriel Miranda and Matt Frevola, respectively. In round two of his Featherweight fight against Miranda, Charriere landed a massive left hook that put “The Fly” on his butt and sent the crowd into a frenzy (see it here). Prior to that, however, Ziam set the bar high as far as knockouts go for the night thanks to his massive and devastating standing knee knockout win over “Steamrolla” that earned him a cool $ 50,000 in post-fight bonus cash (relive it here). With wins like that, they can expect their stock to go up.

Biggest Loser: Brendan Allen

In mixed martial arts (MMA), the air can be taken out of your balloon quicker than it took for it to get filled. That’s just what happened to Allen, who saw the momentum it took him two years to build — which included seven straight wins — go up in smoke after a subpar performance. Indeed, Allen went toe-to-toe with Imavov for 15 minutes. But, the output was lacking from Allen, who could have leaped into the the Top 5 and one step closer to a title shot with a win. It was pretty disappointing to see his performance because he was firing on all cylinders during his win streak, but was running on “E” in one of the biggest fights of his career. Now. Allen will have to go back to the drawing board and start from scratch, which is not an easy thing to do in the stacked 185-pound division.

For complete UFC Paris results, coverage and highlights, click HERE.

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