Renato Moicano made a statement at UFC Vegas 115, submitting teammate Chris Duncan and immediately turning his attention back to Brian Ortega.
Moicano dropped Duncan with a knockdown before finishing the fight by rear-naked choke submission in the second round. The bout came together after Moicano’s planned rematch with Ortega, originally scheduled for UFC 326 in March, fell through when Ortega pulled out.
"There is one motherf*cker who I have bad blood [with] and his name is Brian Ortega," Moicano said, referencing the opponent who handed him his first professional defeat in 2017. "He ran the first time. I was beating him the first time. He got me OK, fair enough but it was my first defeat. Now I want revenge. I want his head. I want to kill this motherf*cker."
Moicano also took aim at several other names, declaring, "Dan Hooker, f*cking easy money," and adding, "Paddy Pimblett, f*cking easy money. Benoit Saint Denis, f*cking easy money. I don’t want anything against Mauricio Ruffy because back in the day, I thought I could beat this motherf*cker but now after what he did against f*cking [Rafael] Fiziev, you saw that, this guy’s the real deal. I don’t want anything with Mauricio Ruffy."
The win over Duncan carried extra tension for Moicano, as both fighters train at American Top Team in Florida. "I did not want to fight Chris Duncan," he admitted, later adding, "It was not easy, it was not good at the gym. I don’t want to do that again."
