He was left lying stunned on the floor of the cage at the Kaseya Center in Miami. KO’d by Dustin Poirier on March 9 in the fight that was to propel him to the UFC title, Benoît Saint Denis suffered the second defeat of his career and a first serious setback. Nearly eight months later, the Nîmes man makes his return to the cage as the headliner of the third UFC Paris. The target is Renato Moicano, and is ranked higher than “God of War”.
But since this fight, a lot of things have changed in the life of “BSD”. Having returned to train in Bayonne for more than a year to find a city which welcomed him during his years as a special forces soldier, the French fighter stopped his collaboration with his long-time coach, Daniel Woirin. “I’ve been working with Daniel for a very long time but we actually put a pause on our relationship,” he soberly declared on the set of Antenne Réunion last May.
A few days later, the French coach deplored this decision, claiming to have learned about it “by telephone”. “I regret to announce to you that Benoît Saint Denis and his entourage have made the unilateral choice to end our collaboration by telephone,” he wrote on Instagram. I had a great time alongside him, and know that I put all my energy into trying to bring you back the first French UFC belt. As I often say, fighters’ notoriety, money and success complicate relationships and lead to disappointments. »
Surrounded by a revamped staff, which still includes his jiu-jitsu coach Christophe Savoca, “God of War” will therefore go back to war. “My training camp was very different from the previous ones,” he admitted. I regained a lot of pleasure in training, something that I had lost a little. But my DNA didn’t change overnight. We can expect a lot of significant adjustments. I remain a committed fighter but we must expect additional precision. »
Nassourdine Imavov takes a risk
Just before the Nîmes fight, another French fighter will compete in a duel of the highest importance: Nassourdine Imavov. The native of Dagestan, 4th in middleweight and who remains on two consecutive successes against higher ranked opponents, decided to take a big risk to fight in front of his audience and will face Brendan Allen, only 8th in the division. A defeat could keep him from the title he so desires.
“The guys ahead of me in the rankings weren’t available so I would have had to wait but I wanted to fight again in Paris, in front of my home crowd,” he explains. The first time I had so much kiffé that I wanted to relive that. Anyway, if you want to be champion, you have to be able to beat everyone. » The UFC promised to take him to a title fight if he has two more successes. The American is the first step, the second could be called Israel Adesanya or Sean Strickland, before a possible title shot.
Gomis facing a terror, Farès Ziam for the top 15
Before these two main fights, seven other Habs will try to get a victory in front of their home crowd. Nora Cornolle will be the first to enter the cage against the Portuguese Jacqueline Cavalcanti, the only fighter to have beaten her in her career. It was July 2021, during his first fight. The time for revenge has come.
Taylor Lapilus will also experience his second UFC Paris against the American Vince Morales, back in the organization, while Oumar Sy faces the Korean Da Woon Jung for his second fight in the league. Farès Ziam will offer himself the biggest challenge of his career against Matt Frevola, a former resident of the Top 15 lightweights and a former victim of Benoît Saint Denis.
The fights will then escalate with Morgan Charrière facing another BSD victim, the Brazilian Gabriel Miranda. Kevin Jousset, for his first in France, will challenge one of the UFC’s darlings Bryan Battle, while William Gomis will face the terror Joanderson Brito, another little protégé of the organization.
