Renato Moicano is all in for a fight with Justin Gaethje.
Moicano (20-5-1 MMA, 12-5 UFC) battered Benoit Saint Denis en route to a second-round doctor’s stoppage TKO September at UFC Fight Night 243 in Paris.
Moicano’s star continued to rise after notching his fourth-straight win, and the Brazilian thinks the sky is the limit for him with his ever growing popularity.
“Now, the best thing is that you don’t need to rely on nobody,” Moicano said on his “Show Me The Money” podcast. “Sometimes to get a title fight, you need big names like Gaethje or you need somebody who fought for the title. Right now, you just have to keep winning.
“It doesn’t matter who you fight now. It could be Paddy Pimblett. It could be Dan Hooker. It could be Justin Gaethje. It doesn’t matter. One more win, two more wins, doesn’t matter – you’re going to fight for the title because now people start to recognize you.”
Paddy Pimblett still interests Moicano, but he’d want to up the stakes for that fight. As for Dan Hooker, Moicano is ready to move on to an even bigger fight – Gaethje (25-5 MMA, 8-5 UFC), which Chael Sonnen called a no brainer of a matchup. Moicano fought with a shoulder injury in his win over Saint Denis, but insists he’d be ready before the end of the year.
“To be completely honest with you, Paddy Pimblett is a good fight because he is famous, but I would rather fight with him if we do ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ because that’s going to be funny and a lot of exposure,” Moicano said. “Other than that, for just a fight, I would rather face Justin Gaethje because I think Dan Hooker is not going to get the fight. He had the opportunity now to say let’s fight, but he’s saying that I dodged him in Perth.
“That’s not true. They didn’t offer me that fight. Let’s make the fight for December. I’m telling you that I’m ready for December, January. It doesn’t matter. But if Dan Hooker doesn’t want that fight, let’s go with Justin Gaethje. I saw Chael Sonnen talking about that and I agree with him: Justin Gaethje would be a good fight. It doesn’t matter, brother. I’m coming for the gold, my brother. I will be f*cking champion of this division.”
