Renato „Money Moicano“ Carneiro will take plenty of momentum into his
showdown with Beneil
Dariush at UFC
311.
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The Brazilian standout has won his last four Octagon appearances
and is coming off a second-round stoppage of Benoit St.
Denis at UFC Paris this past September. Even though he’s
already enjoyed plenty of success, Dariush would be Carneiro’s most
significant victory to date.
“St. Denis was also a good grappler, but I believe Dariush is even
better, so I believe that fight will go to the ground,” Moicano
recently told Sherdog.com while declining to predict a clear method
of victory.
“I’ll knock him out, submit him or win via decision. I don’t know.
I’m just sure that I´m in a great position, and I´ll leave that
Octagon with another win.”
The
American Top Team representative also doesn’t have a callout in
mind should he get his hand raised on Saturday night at the Intuit
Dome in Los Angeles.
“I don’t care about names,” he said. “I want fights that will bring
me more financial return. ‘Moicano’ wants money.”
The lightweight division features plenty of talented grapplers, and
Carneiro, who is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, pointed to the
top of the weight class when selecting who he feels is the
best.
“The grappling concept is pretty wide,” Carneiro said. “But
concerning MMA and the last fights among ranked lightweights, it
has to be Islam [Makhachev], Charles [Oliveira] and [Arman]
Tsarukyan. If Khabib was still active, I would put him in first
place.”
Tsarukyan, another ATT product, will challenge Makhachev for
lightweight gold in the UFC 311 headliner. While they’re from the
same gym, Carneiro revealed that he didn’t work with Tsarukyan this
time around.
“We trained a long time ago — not this time,” he said. “But I was
able to see a lot of his sparring and I can tell he is in great
shape.”
However, Carneiro would not go so far as to give his ATT stablemate
the nod over Makhachev.
“Tsarukyan is coming well prepared, but unfortunately Islam is way
bigger, heavier and has a better wrestling skill, so I think he is
the favorite,” Carneiro said. “But in a five-round MMA fight,
anything can happen. Arman did his homework and is coming in great
shape and can surprise the champion.”