UFC Paris: Moicano vs Saint Denis - Sep 28 🇫🇷

[wandshogun09]

We’re heading back to France…

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Renato Moicano vs Benoit Saint Denis 

Nassourdine Imavov vs Brendan Allen 

Ion Cutelaba vs Ivan Erslan

Morgan Charriere vs TBA

Fares Ziam vs Matt Frevola 

Kevin Jousset vs Bryan Battle  

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Daniel Barez vs Victor Altamirano

Oumar Sy vs Da Un Jung

Dariya Zhelezniakova vs Ailin Perez

Germaine De Randamie vs Nora Cornolle

William Gomis vs Joanderson Brito

Ludovit Klein vs Roosevelt Roberts

Bolaji Oki vs Chris Duncan  

 

First off, take no notice of the bout order. It’s not finalised and I’ll edit as we go. Not bad at all that card. I dig the main event, there are a couple of other fights I like the sound of and a few prospects I’m interested to see again. The last two Paris cards have had great crowds as well so that always helps. And on top of everything else, this’ll be on at a nice early time for us! 

 

 

Renato Moicano vs Benoit Saint Denis tops the bill in France this time. Cracking fight. Was fully expecting the main event of this one to be Ciryl Gane against some big plodding slug so I’m more than happy with a Lightweight headliner like this. As I type this, Moicano’s ranked #11 and BSD’s at #12 on the UFC’s website. So both are knocking on the door of the Top 10 of the 155 division. Looking forward to this.

Moicano’s been around for a long time now and, at 35 years old, I think it’s fair to say he’s on the final stretch of his career. Although there are exceptions, you don’t typically see fighters do too well from 35 and up, especially in the lighter weight classes. So Moicano’s at that stage in his career now where he’s looking to max out whatever time he’s got left and get the biggest fights possible for the most money he can get, before time runs out. It’s also probably why he’s become much more vocal over the last couple of years. He’s been a decent fighter for years but that’s not always enough unless you’re absolutely exceptional. Moicano isn’t. He’s good but not good enough that he’s gonna catch on and stand out purely on his skills alone. So he’s started talking more and it’s kind of working. He’s definitely more popular now than he’s ever been before. For me, his schtick is already getting old. I can’t remember who I was talking about it with on here recently but one of you at least agrees. Can’t blame or knock him for trying but his whole thing of just saying “MOTHAFUCKA” over and over again and banging on about loving the USA and wanting to be a cop and shoot the bad guys…it’s not really hitting the spot for me. It was amusing the first time but it seems like he’s run out of material already and that’s all he’s got. Most fans are lapping it up though so he’s gonna run with it. Mothafucka. But yeah, good fighter and he’s coming off 3 solid wins. He deserves this spot. But I don’t think he goes any higher than this. There’s a reason Paddy Pimblett seems desperate to fight Moicano and it’s because he’s entering that phase of his career where he’s basically gonna be a stepping stone for younger guys on the rise. And that’s what I think the matchmakers had in mind when they put this one together.

Benoit Saint Denis is on the path to redemption here. He’s 28 years old and coming into the prime of his career, he’s an exciting fighter with a crowd pleasing style and he was looking like a possible future title contender before running into Dustin Poirier at UFC 299 in March. He’d lost his UFC debut but was on a 5 fight winning streak heading into that Poirier fight, with all 5 fights not making it to the judges scorecards. It seemed clear to me that the UFC were high on him as well, just from the way guys like Rogan were talking him up and stuff. I definitely got the sense that the UFC higher ups were looking at that as BSD’s big breakthrough fight and, with Poirier coming off that brutal headkick KO loss to Gaethje, they probably thought he was on the decline and ripe for a surging up and comer like BSD to catch at the right time. Wrong. Poirier gave a big ‘fuck you’ to the lot of them and stopped Saint Denis in the second round of a really fun scrap. I was as happy as anyone to see Poirier win that fight but, like when any prospect loses, the ‘fraud check’ bollocks started to get thrown at Saint Denis. Shite. Yeah, it was a step up and he came up short. But I don’t need to tell any of you that losing to Dustin Poirier doesn’t make you a fraud. That’s just wally talk. Especially when you see how well Poirier fought against the champ Islam Makhachev in his next fight. And it’s not like Saint Denis didn’t have his moments against Poirier. He was giving him all he could handle that first round. Poirier’s an absolute dog and he can put anyone away in that kind of fight. It’s not a loss Saint Denis can’t come back from. There were positives to take from it and he’s still the right side of 30. Writing him off as a fraud after a fight like that is cobblers.

So yeah, really good fight. One of the better Fight Night headliners of the year for me. I’m actually hoping this goes into the later rounds. We’ve only seen Moicano do 5 rounds once and he took a beating off Rafael Dos Anjos. And Saint Denis has never gone longer than 3 rounds and has actually only ever gone the distance once. His last fight with Poirier was scheduled for 5 rounds but was over in 2. I feel like the matchmakers think this is a good rebound fight for Saint Denis. I don’t think they’d have booked this as his bounce back fight after Poirier unless they fancied him winning. They can say they don’t root for certain guys all they want but, let’s face it, they’re not having BSD headline in France to lose, are they? They want him back on track and in the mix. If you just look at Moicano’s recent record you might think it’s a dangerous rebound fight for Saint Denis, and it is to an extent. But while he’s on a 3 fight win streak, he didn’t look amazing against Drew Dober in February and then came very close to getting knocked out by Jalin Turner at UFC 300 in April. He only survived that because Turner let him off the hook by trying to do the old Mark Hunt walk-off KO and failing to follow up. So on paper, you might look at this and think the guy coming off 3 wins should be favoured over the guy coming off a KO loss. But I can definitely see why the matchmakers probably like BSD’s chances here. Either way, I’m expecting an entertaining fight out of this and you know the French crowd is gonna be red hot for it. 

 

Nassourdine Imavov vs Brendan Allen is co-main. Not the worst fight but isn’t doing anything for me really. It’s Imavov. Just can’t get into his fights at all. He’ll probably get a decent crowd response here because he’s French but I’m just really indifferent to him. He’s 29 years old, 14-4-0-1 and coming off a TKO win over Jared Cannonier in June. It was a bit of a controversial stoppage though. Usually I disagree with the ‘early stoppage’ talk but I did feel like Cannonier was a bit hard done by. Imavov beat Dolidze in a 5 round Apex snoozer before that as well. Yeah just not convinced by him. Says it all that he was losing to a 40 year old Cannonier who was coming off a year layoff until the dodgy stoppage saved him. As for Allen…

There’s his last fight. Unofficial and off the books of course. For some reason him and Marvin Vettori got into it at a casino after a PFL event recently. The video shows Allen giving him a clump and some reports say he knocked Vettori flying into a roulette table, other reports say Allen rushed him and Vettori dropped him. Who knows? Who cares? They were supposed to headline a Fight Night in April but Vettori pulled out. Allen ended up beating Chris Curtis on points in their entertaining rematch instead. No doubt him and Vettori will be rescheduled at some point. For now though, I just hope Allen beats Imavov. Allen seems a bit of a knob but he’s way better to watch than Imavov. Him knocking Imavov back a few steps is the best result for us all here. Allen’s on a solid little run as well. 24-5 now, on a 7 fight win streak with 5 finishes and he’s currently ranked #7. Imavov’s at #4, which is really a damning indictment on the Middleweight division. Yeah, hopefully Allen stops his little climb.

 

Ion Cutelaba vs Ivan Erslan. Not a clue on this. You pretty much know what you’re getting out of Cutelaba. He’s not that good but he doesn’t really know how to fight any other way than mindless aggression. Entertaining 205ers are thin on the ground these days so, as meatheaded as he is, he’s alright by me. He’s 17-10-1-1 now, it’s going nowhere, but I’ve very rarely been bored watching him. Christ, he even made Ankalaev look exciting for a couple of fights! He’s lost 4 of his last 5 now though so he could really do with a win here. Erslan is making his UFC debut. He’s Croatian, 32 years old and has a record of 14-3-0-1 with 11 finishes, 10 by knockout. Looking at his record, not much stands out other than he’s fought a lot in KSW and he’s wildly inconsistent. He’s gone 2-2 in his last 4 but he’s coming off a 54 second KO in his last fight in February. No idea what to expect out of him but this feels like it could be total chaos.

 

Fares Ziam vs Matt Frevola is the obvious likely show stealer for me. Ziam’s gone under the radar but he’s a solid fighter and I’m glad he’s getting a decent name on a main card, and in front of a home crowd. He’s 27 years old, 15-4 with 9 finishes and he’s currently on a 3 fight winning streak beating Michal Figlak, Jai Herbert and Claudio Puelles.

‘Steamrolla’ Frevola is 34 years old and fights out of New York as part of the Serra-Longo fight team. He’s 11-4-1 now and he’s had a few bad setbacks but he’s one of those fighters I’m always happy to see on a card. Very rarely a dull moment. He had that disastrous 7 second KO loss to Terrance McKinney a few years ago and his response was to go on a 3 fight streak of wild first round knockout wins over Genaro Valdez, Ottman Azaitar and Drew Dober. Seriously, if you’ve got a spare 10-15 minutes to kill before this card, give those fights a watch. All of them are one round bangers. Unfortunately it all came to a crashing halt in his last fight. He fought Benoit Saint Denis on the MSG card in November and got headkicked into oblivion in 90 seconds. This is his attempt to rebound but he’s gonna be in hostile territory here. Should be a fun one.

 

Kevin Jousset vs Bryan Battle is whatever. Might be alright but it’s not particularly grabbing me. Not familiar enough with Jousset to really give a bollocks but maybe this’ll be the fight to change that. He’s French so he’ll have the crowd support and that might bring the best out of him. And also, he’s in with a guy I am familiar with so that makes it easier to gauge his performance. He’s 31 years old, 10-2, on a 5 fight win streak and coming off a points win over Song Kenan in December. Battle is also 10-2, won TUF a few years ago and has had mixed results in the UFC since. The highlight so far has been his 14 second KO over Gabe Green in front of his hometown crowd in Charlotte. His last fight ended on a No Contest due to an eye poke though.

 

Daniel Barez vs Victor Altamirano. Might be decent actually. Only seen Barez once and it was his UFC debut last year where he got subbed in a round by Jafel Filho. I remember that being a really fun round of action though and Barez was giving Filho real issues before he got caught. He’s 35 years old, Spanish and has a 16-6 record with 13 finishes. Altamirano’s 33 with a 12-4 record. He got a couple of wins early in his UFC career but has since dropped a couple of back-to-back decisions to Tim Elliott and Felipe Dos Santos.

 

Oumar Sy vs Da Un Jung is gonna be worth a look. Sy looks the business so far. He’s 28 years old, undefeated at 10-0 with 8 finishes and he’s a Light Heavyweight that actually might be worth getting excited about. Imagine that? Not sure how the bout order is gonna shake out but if they don’t put this on the main card I think they’re missing a trick.

Sy’s one of the better prospects they’ve signed in a while and definitely the best prospect they’ve had out of France in probably ever. He made his UFC debut in May and subbed Tuco Tokkos in a round with ease. Not a stellar win but he got royally fucked about going in with opponent changes. Think Tokkos was the third scheduled opponent and Sy dealt with him like he was nothing. Jung’s nothing special. He’s 15-5-1 and coming off 3 straight losses. Make no mistake this is a fight that’s been designed to add to Sy’s highlight reel and I expect it will go that way. We’ll see though.

 

Dariya Zhelezniakova vs Ailin Perez is a nothing fight. Zero interest in it. Zhelezniakova is Russian, 28 years old and 9-1 with 5 finishes. She fought for the Ares promotion before signing with the UFC and made her debut in March, beating Montserrat Rendon by decision. Perez is Argentinian, 29 years old and 10-2. She’s won her last 3 fights in the UFC but it’s been against absolute bottom of the barrel opposition. All anyone talks about is her shaking her arse, that’s her gimmick to make up for her lack of entertainment and skill in the cage. She’s no Norma Dumont.

 

Germaine De Randamie vs Nora Cornolle is a fight I have no opinion on but we’ll go through the motions. Netherlands vs France here. De Randamie finally returned to action in April after a huge 3+ year layoff to have a baby. She came back and lost a decision to Norma Dumont in a fight so lacklustre I’d already forgot it even happened until right now. She’s a weird one for me.

I think most people forget this was ever a thing. De Randamie was actually the first ever female UFC Featherweight champion but was stripped of the title because she didn’t want any part of Cyborg. It was as blatant a duck as it gets. Despite that, she’s had her moments. She beat Holly Holm, she went the distance with Amanda Nunes in their second fight and she’s got wins over both Raquel Pennington and Julianna Pena, who are fighting for the Bantamweight strap just a week after this. At 40 years old though, she’s obviously on borrowed time. Cornolle is 34 with a record of 8-1 and 7 finishes. She made her UFC debut on last year’s Paris card and beat Joselyne Edwards on points. No memory of that. She followed that up with a vicious stoppage over Melissa Mullins in April. Not gonna pretend I’ve got any real expectations for this but we’ll see.

 

William Gomis vs Joanderson Brito is leaving me cold. And it’s not Brito’s fault. I just can’t be arsed with Gomis at all. Absolute dullard from what I’ve seen so far. He’s French and he’s fought on the first two Paris cards but I can’t even remember the French crowds showing him too much love. His UFC run so far has consisted of a majority decision over Jarno Errens, a split decision over Francis Marshall and then a TKO via ‘body kick’ over Yanis Ghemmouri that was clearly a bollock strike. People say Mokaev was boring but he looked like Wanderlei Silva compared to this fucker. Don’t know why they’ve saddled Brito with this. He’s the complete opposite. He’s 17-3-1 with 15 finishes and he’s coming off his best win to date over Jack Shore in May. It was a doctor stoppage due to a cut on the leg, which was odd. But that wasn’t Brito’s call and he was giving Shore all kinds of problems even before that. This feels like a step backwards for Brito. Odd matchmaking but needless to say I hope he gets something watchable out of it and, most importantly, a win.

 

Ludovit Klein vs Roosevelt Roberts is an OK fight but a bit of a weird one. Feel like Klein should be further along than this by now. Granted this wasn’t the original matchup, Klein was supposed to face Nikolas Motta here. But, again, feels like Klein should be past that level at this point. Oh well. Maybe it’s just a case of him wanting to stay active and just taking any fight. He’s 22-4-1 now, hasn’t lost since 2021 and has gone unbeaten in his last 6 fights. Some decent wins in there as well over the likes of Mason Jones, Ignacio Bahamondes and Thiago Moises. He’s never gonna be a UFC champion or probably even a top contender in a division as loaded as Lightweight but I think he’s a tad underrated myself. I feel like you could throw him in with pretty much any of the strikers at 155 and you’d at least get a good fight out of it. Roberts isn’t terrible but he’s struggled to find consistency. He’s 12-4-0-1 and previously fought in the UFC between 2018-21. He went 4-3-0-1 in that stint and was let go after getting spin kicked into oblivion by Bahamondes. He went away and won a couple of fights in the LXF and Eagle FC promotions then was brought back to the UFC late last year…only to miss weight then get armbarred in a round by Mateusz Rebecki. Not ideal. This feels like they’re feeding him to the wolves again to me.

 

Bolaji Oki vs Chris Duncan could be good. Oki came into the UFC earlier this year with a decent amount of buzz around him. He’d fought on DWCS last summer and looked really impressive and I read nothing but positive things about him before his UFC debut in February. It wasn’t the strongest debut though. He won a split decision over Timmy Cuamba and the fight and Oki’s performance didn’t exactly wow anyone. But in fairness, Oki’s original opponent fell out and Cuamba stepped in really late in the day so it probably wasn’t a fair reflection. He’s 9-1 now with 6 finishes and the only loss was on points in his MMA debut back in 2018. We’ll see how he looks here. I saw his DWCS fight and he looked sharp and like he had a lot of potential so I think there’s better to come than he showed against Cuamba last time. Scotland’s Duncan is 31 years old and 11-2 with 8 finishes. He got off to a decent start in the UFC but it all went tits up in his last fight when he got strangled in a round by Manuel Torres on the Mexico City card in February.

 

 

Bonjour!

Edited September 7 by wandshogun09

[wandshogun09]

This is how the card and bout order is shaping up according to Marcel Dorff.

Odd to say the least. I don’t have a huge problem with it but Cutelaba vs Erslan and Jousset vs Battle on the main card while Oumar Sy, Ludovit Klein and Bolaji Oki slum it on the prelims looks off to me. Morgan Charriere is looking for a new opponent after AJ Cunningham withdrew. Oh and apparently the Taylor Lapilus vs Felipe Lima fight (which was my ‘one to watch’) is either off or was never 100% confirmed in the first place. Shame.