"Where you get your paycheck from?"- Renato Moicano responds to Michael Bisping's comments on alleged matchmaking bias in UFC
Renato Moicano recently responded to Michael Bisping's comments regarding the alleged matchmaking bias in the UFC. The Brazilian shared his thoughts on why some fighters receive certain matchups compared to his situation with the matchmaking.
The former UFC middleweight champion defended the promotion from the perception that some fighters are purposely given a bad stylistic matchup so they lose. He brought up that he wasn't being biased despite being a commentator and analyst, but Moicano jokingly clapped back and noted that he was being a company man.
During his latest appearance on Bisping's Believe You Me podcast, 'Money' opened up about the UFC's matchmaking favoring fighters competing in their local market.
Moicano agreed with Bisping's explanation by mentioning that he believes the matchmaking is biased in certain situations and noted that Brazilian fighters are at a disadvantage:
"Where you get your paycheck from?...I'm not disagreeing with you, a fight is a fight. How many times we saw a Matt Serra against 'GSP'? That happens...Like you said, how many English fighters [UFC] have? How many French fighters they have? And how many Brazilian [fighters] they have?...If they need somebody to do the hard work, they're gonna call a Brazilian and if he loses, they have another one." [2:35]
Check out the full episode featuring Renato Moicano's comments below:
Renato Moicano discloses what his initial expectations were for Benoit Saint Denis fight
In addition to sharing his thoughts on the perception surrounding the UFC matchmaking bias, Renato Moicano disclosed what his initial expectations were for his fight against Benoit Saint Denis at UFC Paris.
During the aforementioned interview, Moicano mentioned that he was confident in the work he put into his ground game but was expecting Saint Denis to be a much tougher matchup:
"I was expecting a tough fight but I knew I have been working on my ground game, especially on my ground and pound. So, I knew what he would try to do. I saw [Saint Denis] fight against [Matt] Frevola, against Thiago Moises...and he really trust his butterfly guard...I come from Jiu-Jitsu, but Jiu-Jitsu doesn't work like it used to." [4:49]
Check out a clip from Renato Moicano's win over Benoit Saint Denis at UFC Paris below: