Renato Moicano didn’t need much convincing to jump on the opportunity of a lifetime at UFC 311. He just needed to believe it was really happening.
Originally slated to battle fellow lightweight contender Beneil Dariush this past Saturday, Moicano was instead called up to the main event after UFC champion Islam Makhachev lost his opponent to injury just one day out from the event. The No. 1-ranked contender Arman Tsarukyan started suffering from a lower back injury midway through the week before it eventually crippled him to the point of no return.
Moicano, 35, did his best under the circumstances but ultimately came up short, losing in the first round.
“I’m OK, I am always trying to be very rational about everything,” Moicano said Monday on Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “I try to be not emotional, and of course, I am disappointed with myself with my performance. I didn’t want to go like that, first round. That was not my best performance, but what can I do, right?
“I have to go forward, then I have to win my next fight. That’s it.”
The loss snapped the Brazilian’s four-fight win streak, which dated back to his previous short-notice fight — a 2022 decision loss to former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos.
Moicano said he caught wind of the possible card shakeup Thursday night while cutting weight. Around 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. local time, after he started cutting weight, UFC CBO Hunter Campbell rang Moicano as a heads up. Tsarukyan was still headlining at that point, but there was cause for concern.
“Hunter called me, and he say, ‘Hey, tomorrow I want you to make 155 [pounds].’ And I say, ‘Why? Everything happens, everything is good?'” Moicano recalled. “He say, ‘No, everything is good, but both fighters are very heavy, and I don’t have a backup, you’re going to be the backup, so please cut to 155 tomorrow.’ I say, ‘OK, I will.’ But then I hang up the phone, and I was thinking to myself, there is no way somebody’s going to pull out of the fight. Islam’s not pulling out, and Arman being the challenger, he’s not — I don’t believe he’s going to quit right now.
“I woke up on the [Friday], five o’clock to cut the two pounds off. I thought to myself, ‘I’m not going to make 155. I’m going to make 156 because I’m not fighting for the belt today. There is no chance that I’m fighting today. He just say that so I can be on the weight if something happens.’ But if you remember, I was the backup fighter for Max Holloway and Brian Ortega [in December 2018], and I cut the weight, and I was with that stuck to my head, ‘So nothing’s going to happen, I’m not going to cut weight, I’m just going to lose two more pounds, so I’m going to be 156 and it’s OK.'”
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Moicano’s past experience in similar positions was arguably even weirder. At UFC 231, when Holloway defended his featherweight title against Ortega, Moicano was lined up to face Mirsad Bektic until Bektic was forced out with a late injury, resulting in Moicano’s role as the main event backup. Since Holloway vs. Ortega went on as planned, Moicano didn’t actually fight that night instead returning the following February for a showdown against MMA legend Jose Aldo.
But with Tsarukyan also training at Moicano’s gym, American Top Team in Southern Florida, coach Marcus Damatta was able to convince Moicano to cut that extra pound once the clock started ticking.
“I start to cut my weight alone, and then my coach called me and said, ‘Hey, are you up?’ ‘Yeah, I’m awake. What’s up?’ He said, ‘You’re fighting for the belt tomorrow.’ I said, ‘Why? What? What’s going to happen?’ ‘Arman hurt his back and he’s having trouble cutting the weight. He cannot cut the weight so he not going to be able to make the weight and not going to able to compete.’ I said, ‘Are you sure? Are you serious?’ He said, ‘Yes,’ and then I was so happy. Then I thought, ‘Tomorrow, I will become world champion.’ I was so happy with the opportunity.
“To be honest, when he called me and he told me that was fighting for the world title, that probably was one of the happiest moments in my whole life. I cut the weight, and then I fought on Saturday — and unfortunately I lost in the first round.”
Although Moicano’s stock didn’t rise in the Makhachev matchup, it certainly didn’t lower. It also didn’t hurt his bank account. Moicano had all the leverage in the world as the first option UFC turned to as a replacement, and the event’s disclosed payouts list him as making a minimum of a $250,000 flat purse.
Ultimately, Moicano didn’t consider strong-arming the promotion or making negotiations difficult.
“I was in a good position to discuss numbers, but at the same time, I’m telling you, I got a huge deal,’ Moicano said. “I got money. Money is not the problem. And not only that, but what people don’t realize is I fight for money. I love money, but there was something else, right? There was the chance to be world champion, and the amount of money that I would make after the fight if I became champion, that would’ve be unprecedented for me. Getting the pay-per-view points, and even the fame and everything that goes with the belt.
“But at the at the same time, I’m not mad at that because I didn’t want to be famous because of that. I want the money and I want the accomplishment. I wanted to know that I was the best fighter in the world on Saturday. But unfortunately, I couldn’t.”
Having suffered little to no physical damage at UFC 311, Moicano expects to return relatively quickly and already knows exactly what he wants next. Dariush was a big step up in the lightweight rankings, however Moicano and rising star Paddy Pimblett appeared to be on a collision course before UFC 311 was booked.
Now that Moicano suffered a setback, Pimblett is the guy he wants, especially after the brash Brit continued taking jabs post-fight, calling Moicano a “b****” and “little sausage” for his loss to Makhachev.
Moicano won’t let the comments slide.
“Paddy Pimblett is unbelievable,” Moicano said. “He never beat anybody that is good on the Octagon. UFC always favors him for a reason, he has millions of followers. That’s a spoiled brat motherf***er. They give him everything that he needs. He never took a fight on short notice. Never. He never did, and he never will because he doesn’t need [to]. He has the silver spoon. They’re going to feed him the best matchups, they’re going to do everything that is good for him. And fair play, that’s not my business. I’m just calling [it] out — and to be fair, I did tap pretty fast, so he might be right on that one. But let me tell you something: If I fight Paddy Pimblett, I will finish in the first round, just for the for this disrespect.
“Easy money. He’s talking a lot of s***. Book that fight already. I’m going to make him pay for saying that because that’s what drives me crazy. He never got a fight on short notice and fought the pound-for-pound [best] in one day, and he’s still talking s***. Who [has] this guy beaten in the UFC? Imagine he fights Islam Makhachev. Tell me that you think Paddy Pimblett will beat Islam. I don’t see him beating Islam Makhachev, I don’t see him doing being competitive. But what can I do? I was not competitive too.
“So in the perfect world, I would fight Paddy Pimblett in Brazil [next]. I want that main event against Paddy Pimblett.”
