Eccentric Brazilian fighter, Renato ‘Money’ Moicano is returning to the octagon this weekend against French powerhouse, Benoit Saint-Denis at UFC Paris. Ahead of his hotly-anticipated bout, the Brazilian dropped a massive revelation, uncovering the lesser-known story behind his name.
In an exclusive with Home of Fight, the 35-year-old disclosed that his real name is not Moicano. It’s actually just his nickname!
Moicano in Portuguese translates to Mohawk which the fighter during his early days used to don. And that’s where it all started. According to the fighter, his teammates used to give everyone nicknames during training and he got his, courtesy of his unique hairstyle.
” I used to use the Mohawk and Moicano means Mohawk so when I started to train in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, they used to give nicknames to everybody and then they start to call me Moicano because of the hair but I was like 10 or 11 so since then the people just call me Moicano.”
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And ever since then, the Moicano moniker has been with him, to a point that even his father addresses the fighter using the same.
But that seems like less of a concern right now as ‘Money’ is slated to face off a vicious Benoit Saint Denis in his hometown of Paris as the UFC octagon returns to the French capital for a Fight Night.
Coming off of a loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 299 that derailed his hype on the way to a potential lightweight title shot, BSD would want to take Moicano’s head off!
Moicano vs. The God of War in Paris
#11 ranked UFC lightweight and #12 ranked Renato Moicano & Benoit Saint-Denis are about to main event the UFC French feature at the Accor Arena in Paris.
Following an epic, extravagant PPV at Vegas with the promotion marking its debut at the Sphere, the promotion is heading to France for a Fight Night for the homecoming of BSD in a pivotal bout in the promotion’s lightweight division.
While undefeated contenders Brendan Allen and Nassourdine Imavov will set the stage for a middleweight clash in the co-main event, all eyes are on the main event scrap that will determine the trajectory of the lightweight division.
On one corner, there’s Moicano sporting a 5-1 record dating back to June 2021 with his only loss during his past six outings being a five-round decision setback to former champion Rafael dos Anjos.
Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, Saint-Denis is also 5-1 in his past six UFC battles.
While he suffered a devastating KO loss to UFC veteran, Dustin Poirier, the Frenchman is looking to rebound with a statement win in front of his home crowd and will most likely be extra dangerous.
Former middleweight champion Michael Bisping also shares these sentiments and believes that the former French armyman would be extra violent going into Paris as he would have a point to prove. The call him the God of War for a reason.
And it’s not because BSD looks like Kratos. But he does fight like him, ash to skin with every blow trying to take someone’s head clean off.
Fortunately, Moicano boasts of similar skills, despite his light hearted persona that’s shone through his many conversations with UFC veteran Gilbert Burns.
So, when cage locks behinds the two, expect a good tug of war fight, that, will epic, is unlikely to last very long! Fortunately, that’s a good thing in the UFC!
