Renato Moicano beat up Benoit Saint Denis in the main event of UFC Fight Night 243 in Paris last night and then targeted either Paddy Pimblett or Dan Hooker as his next “easy money” opponent.
“Next, I want easy money,” Moicano said in his post-fight Octagon interview. “Paddy Pimblett, easy money. Dan Hooker, easy money. Don’t come up with bulls*** fights. Don’t come up with guys that are tough.
“I want easy fights. I just beat a hell of an athlete everybody was talking about, Benoit Saint Denis. But guess what, Money Moicano is the man tonight.”
Moicano will undoubtedly be in the lightweight top 10 rankings in the week to come after his impressive performance last night. Moicano got the fight to the mat early in the first round and left Saint Denis soaked in blood and struggling to see out of both badly swollen eyes due to the ground-and-pound beatdown that followed.
As such it could be argued that Moicano should be fighting a higher ranked opponent than the current No.15 placed Paddy Pimblett next, but both fighters have been talking about this potential match-up for some time and ‘The Baddy’ has already signalled that he’s ready to fight him.
“Let’s do this,” Pimblett wrote last night after watching his rival’s dominant win.
A fight against Hooker would make sense given that he’s currently ranked No.5 in the division after a split-decision win over Mateusz Gamrot recently extended his winning streak to three fights.
Moicano still seems to favor the idea of fighting Pimblett though due to the star power of his rival, and has even floated the possibility of coaching opposite him on TUF first.
“I think it’s going to be a huge exposure,” Moicano said. “Right now, I’m looking for exposure. I’m looking for cameras because I’ve been in the UFC for 10 years. This year will be 10 years. Three years ago, nobody knew me. Nobody knew me, and I always work hard. I always have put in the work. But it doesn’t matter if you’re the best fighter in the world nobody knows. I want more cameras. I want more people talking about my name in MMA because that way I can bring more attention, and I can make my case to fight for the belt eventually.”
