UFC lightweight contender shares high praise for ‘real deal’ Mauricio Ruffy ahead of Benoit Saint-Denis fight

UFC lightweight contender Renato Moicano has plenty of praise for Mauricio Ruffy.

Ruffy is unranked but set to take on 13th-ranked Benoit Saint-Denis at UFC Paris in an intriguing lightweight fight. Heading into the fight, Moicano expects Ruffy to continue his dominance and prove to everyone he’s the real deal.

“I don’t think that card is on the table. I don’t think Ruffy is losing to BSD. Not any chance. I think he will knock BSD out in the first round. I think Ruffy, he is the future of the lightweight division,” Moicano said to Ariel Helwani. “He’s pretty good. I know he was not tested but because a lot of stuff was going on. Bobby Green isn’t an easy guy to knock out like that, and he did it in the first round. Of course, Bobby Green is a little bit older right now, but I think Ruffy is the real deal.”

Mauricio Ruffy is 12-1 as a pro and a perfect 3-0 in the UFC and is coming off a KO win over King Green at UFC 313 in March. The Brazilian also beat James Llontop by decision and won a TKO over Jamie Mullarkey.

As for Saint-Denis, he’s 14-3 and one NC as a pro and coming off a submission win over Kyle Prepolec to return to the win column after back-to-back losses to Renato Moicano and Dustin Poirier.

Renato Moicano explains why he didn’t take UFC settlement

As for Renato Moicano, fans have taken aim at the Brazilian for not taking the UFC payout settlement.

However, Moicano says he decided not to, as it goes against his own principles and felt like he didn’t deserve the money.

“I base the stuff that I do based on principles… and that’s hard. I like money, but I would never rob a bank. I would never go against my word just to get money. That’s my whole point,” Moicano said. “My whole point is when these people signed with the UFC, they were very happy about this. 10 years later they say, ‘No. I was not happy. I was abused.’ And then when they have the chance to keep going with the lawsuit, they dropped it because they did the settlement. So they got the money and the lawsuit is gone. Guess what? UFC will continue doing the same thing that you’ve been complaining about.”

Renato Moicano is 20-7-1 as a pro and coming off a decision loss to Beneil Dariush. Before that, he suffered a submission loss to Islam Makhachev for the belt.