Renato Moicano delivered a vicious first-round beatdown of Benot Saint Denis that led to a doctor’s stoppage following the second round in the main event of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night in Paris.
Moicano successfully shot for a takedown in the opening 30 seconds and dominated the first round entirely.
With vicious precision, Moicano inflicted brutal ground-and-pound strikes on Saint Denis and quickly opened a cut on the Frenchman’s eyelid.
Saint Denis was then forced to spend the majority of the first round with blood gushing across his face as Moicano continued to hammer away with hard punches and elbows from a body triangle position.
The Frenchman survived the round, which was scored 10-8 for Moicano, but had been badly beaten up and sat in his corner bruised and bloodied.
Saint Denis won the second round, largely due to Moicano taking a round off. But his takedown defence had improved immeasurably compared to the first and even pressed the action with several forward combinations.
But the Frenchman was clearly fighting half-blind due to the severe swelling of his eye. His movement and footwork were slower than usual and it was clear that the longer the fight would last, the worse it would get.
After the second round, a doctor was called in to take a look at him and opted to stop the fight, noting he could not see out of his right eye.
With the TKO win, Moicano extended his winning streak to four consecutive fights.
While speaking to Michael Bisping, in his post-fight interview, Moicano called out British star Paddy Pimblett and Dan Hooker, calling them “easy money.”
In the co-main event, Nassourdine Imavov defeated Brendan Allen by unanimous decision, firmly cementing his place as a potential challenger for middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis.
Allen was able to take an easy first round after slamming Imavov down with a clinch takedown. The American spent a long stretch of the fight in side control and on top, landing a few shots while Imavov was largely inactive from the bottom.
Allen tried to return to wrestling in the second round but Imavov shut him down, landing some good hits before firing a takedown and landing some nasty strikes from top position.
With his wrestling failing, Allen started to lose the standing exchanges with Imavov taking full control of the fight. He took Allen down again and inflicted more ground strikes and despite Allen surviving to the third round, all his momentum had been sapped.
Imavov once again defended Allen’s takedowns in the third and secured top position and continued to negate Allen’s wrestling.
He managed to keep control for most of the round despite a brawl at the end, and secured the decision win to plant his name in title contention.
Earlier in the night, the raucous crowd in Paris were treated to back-to-back-to-back knockouts to open the main card.
In the opening fight, Frenchman Fares Ziam delivered a potential knockout-of-the-year contender when he delivered a jaw-dropping high knee to Matt Frevola in the third round.
Ziam had undoubtedly won the opening two rounds but pressed for a finish in the third and was rewarded with a huge knockout.
In the following fight, Morgan Charriere delivered a brutal left to Gabriel Miranda that sent the Brazilian crashing to the canvas in the second round.
Bryan Battle then delivered a TKO of Frenchman Kevin Jousset to silence the Parisian crowd, firing a barrage of two-punch combinations at Jousset that forced the referee to stop the fight while he stood against the cage.
Before the co-main, Joanderson Brito and William Gomis fought all three rounds for a split-decision win for Frenchman Gomis. It was an incredibly tight and aggressive fight that saw Brito’s five-fight winning streak snapped.
UFC Fight night: moicano v saint-denis Results
- Renato Moicano defeated Benoit Saint Denis via TKO (doctor’s stoppage) – at 5:00 in round two
- Nassourdine Imavov defeated Brendan Allen via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- William Gomis defeated Joanderson Brito by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- Bryan Battle defeated Kevin Jousset by TKO (punches) – at 3:47 of round two
- Morgan Charriere defeated Gabriel Miranda by knockout at 0:27 of round two
- Fares Ziam defeated Matt Frevola by knockout at 2:59 of round three
- Ion Cutelaba defeated Ivan Erslan by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
- Oumar Sy defeated Da Woon Jung by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Ludovit Klein defeated Roosevelt Roberts by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
- Taylor Lapilus defeated Vince Morales by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
- Ailin Perez def. Darya Zheleznyakova by submission (arm triangle choke) – 3:52
- Daniel Barez defeated Victor Altamirano by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
- Jacqueline Cavalcanti defeated Nora Cornolle by split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
- Chris Dunan defeats Bolaji Oki by submission (guillotine choke) at 3:34 of round one
