Renato Moicano replacing Arman Tsarukyan for the lightweight title fight against Islam Makhachev at UFC 311 seems to have the support of quite a few UFC veterans. However, MMA’s residential controversialist Dillon Danis isn’t on board with the decision.
Danis wasted no time slamming the matchup as “absolute garbage”, even offering to fly to LA and save the main event. He also took a few liberties and launched a bigoted attack on Makhachev in the process.
“Perfect time to settle everything… I submit the inbred inside one round and send him back to his brother-and-sister parents. @moicanoufc is literally absolute garbage. This can’t be considered a title fight, and no one wants to see it. Let’s make it happen. I’m ready.”
Perfect time to settle everything. I’ll fly to LA tomorrow and fight @MAKHACHEVMMA no problem. I submit the inbred inside one round and send him back to his brother-and-sister parents. @moicanoufc is literally absolute garbage. This can’t be considered a title fight, and no one…
— Dillon Danis (@dillondanis) January 17, 2025
Danis’s last fight was in a boxing match with Logan Paul. It had unfortunately ended as the mixed martial artist went for takedowns after being outclassed in the ring. He had also been severely criticized and later sued for sharing private pictures of Logan’s supermodel partner Nina Agdal.
Danis has time and again faced backlash for taking his rants too far while not actually doing anything about it. He was under contract with Bellator for years but was released in October 2023 after only fighting twice under their banner. His last fight at the promotion was in 2019.
Danis has since tried to be signed by the UFC a number of times. He had even proposed a fight against lightweight prospect Paddy Pimblett but his tweet had fallen on deaf ears.
My UFC debut against Paddy Pimblett would be quite the show, the buildup alone would be electric! And if we want to add some fun, we could be coaches on The Ultimate Fighter and have our fight at the end. Imagine the entertainment that would generate. Let’s give the people what…
— Dillon Danis (@dillondanis) November 9, 2023
Perhaps the dig at Moicano can be attributed to another one of his hopeless endeavors to get noticed by the Dana White-led promotion. Moiccano, on the other hand, seems to have the support of UFC veterans, who believe the short notice can actually work in his favor.
Sonnen backs the underdog
UFC middleweight veteran Chael Sonnen contends that Islam is a dangerous man to prepare for. Having been in title fights against to-be legends in the octagon, Sonnen claims that prolonged camps can cause “paralysis by analysis”.
“We’ve seen more upsets like this. I’ve seen this from the NCAA level to the Olympic Games, even to our sport. Boxing is just as guilty, where somebody gets an opportunity, they go in with a fresh mind, prepared body, and good things happen.”
Light heavyweight fighter Anthony Smith also agreed with Sonnen and reminded that Moicano was already in camp for months for his fight against Beneil Dariush. So he will be as prepared as anyone could be. Besides, there was no point worrying about the Islam fight at this moment since there was just not enough time to change anything.
Hopefully, Moicano can prove them right and give Islam the fight of his life. Interestingly, Islam’s original opponent, Arman Tsarukyan had also faced him for the first time in 2019 on short notice. It is, to this day, considered one of the toughest challenges the champion has had to face.
