Despite suffering a serious shoulder injury weeks before the event, Renato Moicano fought through the pain to secure a stoppage win against Benoit Saint Denis at UFC Paris, continuing his ascent in the lightweight division.
Renato Moicano battered Benoit Saint Denis to earn a stoppage win on Saturday at UFC Paris. By all accounts, he shouldn’t have even been there.
Approximately three to four weeks before Saturday’s event, Moicano suffered a serious shoulder injury. It could have easily knocked him out of the fight.
Instead, Moicano fought through the pain and scored an impressive win. This victory continues his ascension up the lightweight ranks.
“Honestly, I was surprised when he told me the initial decision was to stay in the fight,” said Moicano’s manager Oren Hodak from KO Reps. “Luckily his team trained smart and they made it to the fight.”
X-ray photos provided to Kevin Iole show the extent of the separated shoulder that Moicano suffered prior to his fight. Even with the shoulder still showing damage during moments in the fight, Moicano persevered.
Remarkably, Moicano withstood the injury and went on to deliver a performance where he scored with vicious shots throughout the opening round. These caused significant cuts and swelling on Saint Denis’ face.
While the highly touted prospect from France survived the barrage in the opening round, he still showed aftereffects from the damage done when the fight restarted in the second. The five-minute session ended with doctors determining that Saint Denis couldn’t see properly out of his right eye due to tremendous swelling, leading to the fight being stopped.
The victory moved Moicano to 4-0 in his past four outings. This includes stoppage wins over Saint Denis, Jalin Turner, and Brad Riddell.
Following the fight, Moicano called for “easy money” matchups like Paddy Pimblett or Dan Hooker. He’s likely to return to action sometime in 2025.