Benoit Saint-Denis will be taking on Renato Moicano in the main event of UFC Fight Night this Sunday. The UFC Paris event will see two contenders who find themselves just outside the UFC Lightweight top 10 rankings as of now to get into the top 10 and hopefully challenge for the Lightweight Title currently held by none other than Islam Makhachev.
While Benoit Saint-Denis is still ranked just #12 in the UFC Lightweight rankings, he sure has big dreams in his mind; so big actually, that they feel borderline delusional.
In the leadup to the Renato “Money” Moicano fight this weekend, Saint-Denis was asked about what his dream fight would be. To which the Frenchman replied, “My dream fight? Beat Islam Makhachev to become champion.”
Well, he surely needs someone to tell him that the guy he is talking about beating in a fight is none other than the current Pound-for-Pound number 1 in the UFC, i.e., the best fighter in the UFC bar none. Islam Makhachev is the same guy, who in his last 3 fights went head-to-head against the Greatest Featherweight of all time, Alexander Volkanovski once each in two different weight classes. This was after winning the Lightweight title against Charles Oliveira, and before submitting Dustin Poirier, the man against whom Benoit Saint-Denis lost the last time he was inside the cage.
In short what I’m trying to say is, “There are levels to the game”. And currently, Benoit Saint-Denis is nowhere close to even getting a match against the champ. But that could change with a couple of big wins under his belt.
After tasting defeat for the 2nd time in his Professional MMA career against Dustin Poirier, Saint-Denis is all set to take on Moicano, against whom he is the favourite. But, Moicano won’t be a walkover in any sense. Just to make a comparison of how experienced Moicano is, the Brazillian has been fighting pro since 2011, while “God Of War”, made his debut only in February 2019. In the same month, Moicano fought the former Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo in the UFC.
Saint-Denis is currently 28, still much of a newbie compared to the 35-year-old Moicano. And for him to make such statements, well, is quite BS. But again, his initials are BSD. So quite unrealistically high aims, can Benoit Saint-Denis lay a claim to a top 10 ranking spot on Sunday? Or would he stay dreaming about his dream fight all his life? Let us know in the comments below.
