Renato Moicano believes his UFC 256 fight was stopped too early.
On the prelims, Moicano was set for his second fight at lightweight when he battles Rafael Fiziev. Early on, the Brazilian was having success landing some heavy shots, but late in the first round got caught with a solid combination that dropped him and the ref immediately stopped the fight. However, as Fiziev was following him to the ground, Moicano was getting his opponent into guard so he believes the ref stopped it too early.
“I think he made a mistake, because if you look closely, I also re-watched the fight, I was doing guard,” Moicano said to MMAFighting. “I was in closed guard, starting to work already, and the referee jumped the gun. I understand him – it’s not easy to come here and criticize the referee and say he’s wrong because I got hit twice and went down, so his first reaction is to protect [the fighter], but this is a MMA fight.
“I was dropped before, continued fighting and won. That happened more than once in my career in Brazil. I’m not saying that’s what would have happened, but the truth is I was ready. I knew that was a possibility, and I’m a well-trained fighter on the ground. In my opinion the referee made a mistake [and] he should have let it continue. But at the same time, I understand it because referees are stopping it early every time more now.”
With the loss, Renato Moicano is now 1-1 at lightweight but is also just 1-3 in his last four with all three losses coming by knockout.
