At UFC Vegas 85, top-15 lightweight Renato Moicano has a big opportunity in front of him.
He doesn’t own a win over any fighter who is currently ranked in the lightweight division.
He gets a chance to change that against a ranked fighter with a reputation for exciting fights when he takes on Drew Dober in the co-main event of the weekend’s Fight Night card.
If he picks up a win there, it seems he already has a few opponents in mind for his next matchup that he believes would be easy fights.
On MMA Fighting’s Trocação Franca podcast, Moicano said that he believes lightweight contender Michael Chandler would all be an easy fight.
“An easy ranked [opponent]? Dan Hooker,” Moicano said. “[Or] Bobby Green. Michael Chandler.”
Chandler would be a huge step up in competition for Moicano and might not be quite as easy of a fight as he thinks.
Chandler is a Big Step Up
When he was fighting in the UFC’s featherweight division, Moicano took on some of the best fighters in his weight class.
Those names included Brian Ortega, Jose Aldo, The Korean Zombie, Jeremy Stephens, Cub Swanson, and Calvin Kattar.
He put together a respectable 3-3 record in those fights.
Moicano hasn’t been as successful against top competition at lightweight.
He was knocked out in the first round by Rafael Fiziev in his second fight in the division.
His next chance at an opponent of that quality came against Rafael Dos Anjos. He was dominated en route to a unanimous decision.
Chandler is currently ranked above both of them.
He has lost three of his last four, but those losses came against the best of the best at lightweight.
He still presents a wrestling threat that Moicano has never had to deal with before and the kind of punching power that has caused him trouble in some of his past losses.
If Moicano could beat Dober and follow it up with a win over Chandler, it would make a big statement to the division.
He needs to get past Dober first, though, and Chandler is still trying to get his fight against Conor McGregor.
The Task Ahead of Renato Moicano
Before he can start calling out anybody for his next fight, Moicano already has a tough fight in front of him in Vegas.
Dober is currently ranked 15th in the division and can present Moicano some issues.
His 56% career takedown defense doesn’t look great on paper, but he’s fought some very good wrestlers in his career who have driven that number down. He should still make it difficult for Moicano to get his wrestling game going.
He is also a dangerous striker with nine wins by knockout or TKO in the UFC.
Moicano has the tools to get the win despite Dober’s skills. He is currently the favorite in the fight because of his own striking skills and a ground game that has gotten four submission wins in six fights at lightweight.
He’s dangerous enough that it could take only one mistake from Dober for Moicano to end up with his hand raised.
Moicano is just going to need to keep his chin protected or him calling Chandler an easy fight could look really bad really quickly.
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