Dan Hooker expects Renato Moicano to struggle against Beneil Dariush at UFC 311.
Lightweights Moicano (20-5-1 MMA, 12-5 UFC) and Dariush (22-6-1 MMA, 16-6-1 UFC) square off in a lightweight bout on Jan. 18 at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPNews, ESPN+).
Moicano and Dariush are currently on vastly different career trajectories. Moicano is on a four-fight winning streak, most recently a dominant stoppage win over Benoit Saint Denis at UFC Fight Night 243. Meanwhile, Dariush is coming off back-to-back first-round knockout losses to Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan.
However, despite his losing skid, Hooker sees Dariush as a bad stylistic matchup for Moicano.
“The way in which (Moicano) beat BSD, (Jalin) Turner and Drew Dober, the style in which he enacted to get those three wins, he cannot do against Beneil Darirush,” Hooker said on Israel Adesanya’s YouTube channel. “He cannot outgrapple Beneil Dariush like he outgrappled those three guys because he’s too good.
“In my opinion, Beneil is technically the best grappler, I would say. Do I see Moicano outgrappling Dariush? Nah. Do I see him even outstriking him? That would be a hard night in the office. Beneil, obviously the question there is about his chin. But is Moicano any way, shape or form a talented striker? No. You cannot say he is.”
Moicano has used his ground game to take out his opponents, but Hooker doesn’t see that being a successful path to victory against Dariush.
“I feel like (Dariush) just shuts Moicano’s game down,” Hooker said. “I feel like positionally, he’s better on the feet. I don’t even see how Moicano gets Beneil to the ground, let alone holding him on the ground. I just believe Beneil shuts Moicano down and kind of cruises to victory and gets back to the win column.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 311.
