Ahead of his fight against Beniel Dariush at UFC 311, Renato ‘Money’ Moicano has been awarded the 2024 UFC Honors: Comeback of the Year. Moicano’s performance at UFC 300 against Jalin Turner might not have gotten him a big fat bonus, courtesy of Max Holloway knocking out Justin Gaethje, but it definitely wasn’t in vain.
Moicano had started the fight strongly on his feet. But as has been the story of his career, his inconsistency almost killed the fight for him towards the end of the first round, when Turner dropped him with a straight left. Turner could have started the ground and pound to finish him off but it appeared had taken Moicano’s loss for granted, to his own peril.
Moicano rose up and even though he looked stunned and wobbled around for the rest of the round, Turner seemed too slow and inaccurate to pick him off.
While the first round’s bell saved him, it appeared we were in for something that has been seen with Moicano throughout his career; a promising start thrown away to sheer carelessness. However, when the fight restarted, Moicano seemed bang on money again. He took down Turner and kept him there until he finished him off with some vicious elbows to get the win.
View this post on Instagram
While it can be argued that fights like Brain Ortega vs Yair Rodrigues and Jack Della Maddalena vs. Gilbert Burns deserved the award more, nothing can be taken away from a performance like the one Moicano delivered on the night.
Moicano didn’t let this win go to waste either. Building on it, he then went on to defeat Benoit Saint-Denis in front of his home crowd at UFC Paris. Since then ‘Money’ has announced his title aspirations.
Moicano plans on calling out lightweight champ at UFC 311
At number 10 in the UFC lightweight rankings, Moicano is a far few light years away from a title shot. But he isn’t shy about shooting for the stars. Moicano aims to destroy Dariush at UFC 311 and then challenge Islam Makhachev or Arman Tsarukyan, whoever ends up winning the title at the end of the night.
Moicano claims that the UFC put him on the same card for a reason and said,
“I am pretty sure UFC knows what they are doing, especially letting me fight on the card… big card, huge card, on the same day as the Islam Makhachev-Arman Tsarukyan fight. My plan is to go out there dominate Dariush, finish him, get the mic, and make my case for a title fight. “
View this post on Instagram
