UFC 311 was supposed to be headlined by Islam Makhachev vs Arman Tsarukyan however Tsarukyan pulled out. And so Renato Moicano who was supposed to fight Beneil Dariush stepped up. Moicano put up a decent effort having some success on the feet. However, Makhachev could get Moicano to the ground easily with a takedown and then secured a D’arce choke. Following this loss, the popular Moicano addressed the fight on his successful Youtube channel in a video.
Moicano’s Assessment
The YouTube video was fairly brief. Regarding the loss he said, “Unfortunately, I got finished in the first round, But I want to clarify some stuff. As you could see, when the fight starts, I was doing very well on the feet because I had training to do that. I knew Beneil Dariush was coming off two knockout [losses] and then I say, ‘Okay, I will try to be on my feet’ because it’s going to be very hard to put Dariush down and control him. I’m gonna move a lot and punch him, that’s what I did with Islam Makhachev. I was in a good stance, I was catching him with some punches, with some left hands, with the right hand. I was feeling very well, and I think that was one of the problems.”
He followed up saying, “The crowd started to boo, and I said, ‘Man, I have to get back on the feet because I’m doing very well on the feet’. That was the problem. Even though he wasn’t finding the space to punch me or do effective ground and pound, I just wanted to get back on the feet so I could score on the striking. When I started to create the space in the scrambles to get back on the feet, he kind of gave me the sense that I could put my foot on his hips and get back up. But he did that so I could expose my neck. Then he grabbed with a D’arce choke and was very fast. That’s why I tapped so fast because it was very locked.”
An Accurate Assessment
Overall, it seems like a fairly accurate assessment of what happened. Moicano did do decent on the feet and with Islam ideally, you want to keep it a striking match. His view of what happened on the ground is also pretty accurate. Makhachev wasn’t doing much until Moicano tried to get up capitalising on his mistakes and sinking in the submission. Moicano provided a fairly objective view and did not give any excuses.
Now the question is what’s next for Renato Moicano? Given he took little to no damage he can easily bounce back. Moicano himself has provided a name that he wants. Following the loss he gave an interview with Ariel Helwani and named Paddy Pimblett as his ideal opponent. That would be an intriguing match and the build-up would be fun.
Regardless of what’s next for Moicano, we are thankful to him for helping save UFC 311.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
