Renato Moicano will look forward to extending his three-fight win streak as he takes on Benoit Saint-Denis this weekend at UFC Paris. He'll be headlining an event after four long years and has made tons of new fans lately through his podcast and the 'Money Moicano' gimmick.
Although Saint-Denis is one of the toughest fighters in the lightweight division, Moicano has been fighting elite competition since 2017. He's spent nine years in the UFC, and a win over BSD would bring him closer to a title shot than ever before.
As a UFC veteran at this point, Moicano believes that a fighter's popularity matters more than their ranking and he had quite a few examples to back this claim...
Renato Moicano Aims To Boost His Popularity Instead Of Rankings For A Successful UFC Run Like Dan Hooker and Conor McGregor
While talking to the media recently, Moicano was asked about the impact on his rank after beating an opponent like Saint-Denis who's ranked just below him.
The Brazilian outright stated that rankings don't matter as much in the UFC. Of course, the level of competition you face is directly related to your rank but popularity can help the fighters skip past these aspects and get the biggest fights.
I think the rankings, they don't matter. You know, if the rankings matter, things will be easier but no, we saw like last month, Dan Hooker beating Mateusz and they were pretty far on the rankings. So, we see some guys like, even McGregor, back in the day, he was like, I don't know, how many years without fighting and he was in the rankings. I think this sport, we have to try to see like the popularity, you know, the momentum. And even though Benoit Saint-Denis is ranked behind me, I think he has a lot of momentum. I think he has a lot of popularity, especially in Europe and I think that could catapult me, not to the rankings, but to popularity and I could get even better fights.
Moicano used Dan Hooker as an example as he was below Mateusz Gamrot before their fight. Thanks to a split decision victory, "The Hangman" is now a top-five ranked lightweight and will most likely get a title shot after another win.
Similarly, Conor McGregor was in the UFC rankings for a very long time even when he wasn't fighting anyone. So, understanding that BSD is quite popular in Europe, Moicano's goal is to boost his following among European fans even if his rank doesn't improve much.
The American Top Team fighter thinks he can ask for the biggest fights in the lightweight division regardless of his rank if he's a big draw. Either way, he needs to get past "God of War" first.