The co-main event for UFC 272 saw former champion Rafael Dos Anjos face a short notice opponent in Renato Moicano. He was originally booked to face Rafael Fiziev, but he was forced to pull out after testing positive for COVID. Moicano stepped in on Tuesday of fight week and took a huge risk, but also a huge opportunity. Because this was a 5 round fight, it seemed to favor Dos Anjos as he would have more time to work and take advantage of Moicano's limited cardio. Ultimately, RDA would come away with a pretty definitive decision victory, which puts him in a really interesting spot going forward, but we'll get more into that in a little bit. Moicano did suffer a loss, but I don't think he really takes a hit in his momentum or standing within the organization. If anything, his stock may have went up due to him helping out the organization when they needed him. He still turned in a really gutsy performance and I think every recognized and respected what he did.
Rafael Dos Anjos isn't known for being the most exhilarating fighter to watch and that wasn't my expectations going into the fight. With that said, RDA was even a little more dominant than I expected. We all sort of knew that if Moicano was going to win, he was going to have to find a finish early. Dos Anjos really didn't allow for any of Moicano's strengths to show for basically the entirety of the 25 minute fight. His wrestling and grappling were on point, which makes a lot of sense considering most of his preparations were for a striker in Fiziev. He was able to ground Moicano basically whenever he wanted to. Moicano did present some issues with his jiu-jitsu skills, at least in theory, but that was a complete nonfactor. RDA was able to completely shut Moicano down in every facet of the fight and then he let his ground and pound really take over. He was landing elbows in almost every round that left Moicano's eye in very poor condition for the last 2 rounds. RDA's striking also looked pretty good for the most part. He isn't the most dynamic striker or anything, but he was able to land both his punches and kicks pretty effectively when he wanted to. I agree with the broadcast when they were saying that he kind of took his foot off the gas in the last round. He wasn't trying to do as much damage as he had been doing and it seemed like he took some of the sting off of his punches. He ended up taking some shots in that round that could have come back to cost him, but I think he sort of opted against finishing Moicano once the fight got into the final round. All in all, that was a pretty vintage RDA performance. Nothing flashy or crazy, but just 5 rounds of really solid martial arts.
Rafael Dos Anjos is in a really unique position when it comes to his next opponent. I said last week that I thought Islam Makhachev should get the next title shot, but Dana White has since stated that Islam will have to go through Beneil Dariush. Now, of course, they could walk that back and end up giving Islam the title shot anyway, but let's hold Islam vs Dariush as being booked and just waiting for a date whenever Dariush's ankle is ready. In this case, I think it is possible, if not likely, that RDA finds himself fighting for the title again. Charles Oliveira is defending his belt against Justin Gaethje on May 7. If the winner of that fight comes out with their health intact, their next fight is somewhere around September or October. If Dariush is ready to fight in July and they do book that fight, that would be a very quick turn around. If the champion wants to fight, then the UFC has to find him an opponent and what better options do they have right now. Dustin Poirier just lost his title shot, Dariush and Islam would be booked with each other, that really only leaves RDA. Of course, there is the Conor McGregor rumor, but I really don't think there's much to that, at least right now. Of course, I'm not saying that I would just be over the moon about that fight, but he may be the only option depending on how exactly the calendar shakes itself out. RDA is a well respected veteran and he's always going to be a tough fight for anyone. I sort of view him in a similar light as the Korean Zombie title fight. It isn't the most exciting matchup, but at the same time, I know it will be a tough fight and won't be boring, even if RDA wouldn't likely be favored. I do admit that I don't think the UFC is rushing to get him into a title fight, so then where else would he go? The problem is that a lot of the guys ahead of him are only looking to move up. The rumor right now is that Tony Ferguson will be fighting Michael Chandler next, maybe on that same May card, so they're both out. I was pretty interested in the Fiziev fight, so they could rebook that one whenever Fiziev is recovered. The McGregor fight isn't happening and neither is a fight with Dustin Poirier. At this point, I'll believe Gregor Gillespie is going to fight when I see it, so I'm not including him as an option. If I had to guess, I think the Fiziev fight is probably the most likely option right now and I think that is unfortunate for RDA. He's so close to a title, yet he has to keep fighting down in the rankings.
As for Renato Moicano, I think he fought the fight he had to in order to give himself the best chance to win given the circumstances. Moicano took the fight on only a few days notice and simply didn't have the cardio to fight 5 hard rounds. He had to go out and seek the finish early and just live with the results that came after. He had some moments, but nothing that really amounted to anything. His best stretch actually came in the 5th round when he started landing some really hard shots in the stand up. I do think RDA took his foot off the gas and that is what led to him landing, but the fact that Moicano was even standing at that point was impressive, let alone throwing punches back. Had he not be beaten the way he was, those shots would've had more steam on them and maybe could have really done some damage. Dos Anjos grounded him again after he started to land and rode out the remainder of the fight. All in all, it was a gutsy performance and Moicano showed a lot of heart. Whether his corner should have stopped the fight is a different story for a different day, but that doesn't take away from what Moicano did and showed. He showed up on short notice and was able to put on a fight like that. I think that is something that the UFC takes notice of and will reward him with a good opportunity in his next appearance. I'm not going to spend too much time dissecting his strategy and performance just because it would have looked very different if he had a full camp. Clearly, he does need to work on takedown defense though because RDA really was able to ground him, basically at will. His striking has really come a long way though and I think that is a really good sign going forward.
I think Moicano will still get a really good opponent in his next fight. He will either get someone in the back end of the rankings or someone just on the outside looking in. Obviously, there are quite a few options, so I'll just list some without explaining in as much detail as I normally would. Joel Alvarez, Thiago Moises, Bobby Green, and Diego Ferreira all make varying degrees of sense. They are all sitting in that 15-22 range in the divisional hierarchy and a win over one of them puts Moicano in a spot to get a ranked opponent in the fight after that. One possibility if the UFC really wanted to reward him would be a fight against Brad Riddell. Riddell is a little more solidified in his standing within the rankings and that would be a fight where Moicano would have the opportunity to make a leap. Now that is also the toughest fight of all of the options that I listed, so keep that in mind as well. I think the final comment that I want to make is that I would like to see Moicano take some time off before we see him next. He took a short notice fight this time around and he took a lot of damage. He needs to let his eye heal obviously, but beyond that, I think he just needs some time to reset and rest. Taking that amount of damage can change someone. We saw Anthony Smith and Calvin Kattar take a bit of a break after they took a lot of damage and it has really worked out well for them, so I think a similar path for Moicano would be beneficial.
What do you guys think? What are your takeaways from the fight? Can you see Rafael Dos Anjos fighting for the title next? If not, who is his next opponent? What can we take away in regards to Renato Moicano? What should the UFC do for his next fight? Let me know in the comments. Leave any other thoughts you may have. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
Comments
Post a Comment