UFC Paris Main Event Best Bets
The UFC kicks off a run of nine consecutive weekends of events by returning to France for their annual show in Paris. Ciryl Gane spearheaded the last two shows, but that responsibility now sits on the shoulders of a lightweight contender who stumbled in his last outing. Read more UFC Paris main event best bets.
Renato Moicano looks to push his winning streak to four and continue taking advantage of his newfound popularity amongst the masses.
Frenchman, Benoit Saint-Denis, wants to prove his loss to Dustin Poirier earlier this year was just a stumble and not a fall from grace.
Will the Brazilian spoil Saint-Denis’ homecoming? Or will BSD rebound and propel himself back into the title picture? Read on to see how these dynamic grapplers match up and who will come out on top.
Hey, while you’re at it, click here to check out our Godzilla Wins Daily Staff Picks! 
Renato Moicano
It would surprise most people that Moicano has been a part of the UFC roster since December 2014. The biggest spot he had found himself in was in early 2019 following a two-fight winning streak, he was positioned to take on former featherweight king, Jose Aldo. That began a 1-3 run for Moicano and led many people to believe his time was coming to a close. However, he is now 5-1 over his last 6 fights and has built a fan base from his fighting style and post-fight interviews. Usually engulfed in profanities, Moicano’s new persona has given him a huge following that he continues to feed off in and out of the cage.
Moicano is all about the ground game. He is one of the most dangerous submission specialists in the UFC, with 6 of his 11 wins coming by submission. Striking-wise, he loves the muay thai game, using a lot of kicks, knees, and elbows in close. It’s obvious that is not where he is most comfortable when he fights another striker, thus he looks to drag fights to the ground as soon as he can. From there he does a great job of establishing a dominant position or finding his opponent’s back and then quickly finding a choke. He has been nearly finished in his last two fights but luckily has benefitted from poor fight IQ decisions from his opponents and capitalized on them. At 35 years old, things may start to wind down for Moicano but considering his 5-1 run as of late you wouldn’t expect that to be the case.
Benoit Saint-Denis
This 28-year-old had one of the roughest UFC debuts since maybe Priscilla Cachoeira got beaten down by Valentina Shevchenko. Saint-Denis was put up against Elizeu Zaleski and was at the mercy of a horrible referee who did not stop the fight even with Saint-Denis being half out for most of the fight.
Not many expected much from Saint-Denis after that performance, but he proved many people wrong. He would go on to win his next five fights, finishing each opponent with relative ease. That set up him for a number one contender fight against former interim champion, Dustin Poirier, but unfortunately a staph infection hindered Saint-Denis’ performance, and he came up short in March.
Saint-Denis is still young enough to bounce back and get back into the title picture, especially with the aggressive and smothering style he brings to the table. He does not relent with his pace and pressure, putting opponents through the ringer with his wrestling and clinch game. Once he finds a way to get opponents to the mat, they don’t often find ways to get back to their feet. Besides his UFC debut, he has yet to see a third round with the promotion. I believe he has a sufficient gas tank to keep up his style, but we still need to see it in action.
The Pick
This is a tough fight for me to settle on a single wager to tip you guys. I believe the line is a smidgen wide at -270 and I’m not a fan of sweating out overs, but I feel this is a fight that Saint-Denis will be able to control and maybe be a little safer, so he doesn’t give up any positions to a dangerous submission specialist like Moicano.
The line that calls my name the most in this fight is the over 2.5. It will surely be a sweat, but I figure we’ll see BSD do a great job of controlling and accruing good top time, but Moicano should provide enough resistance to survive at least 12.5 minutes. It’s not a huge confidence play here, but I’ll take a gamble on the over at plus money.
