Houston, TX — Half the battle when it comes to the fight game is brand awareness, and getting your name out there. Renato Moicano knows that very well.
Brazil’s Moicano picked up a submission win over Alexander Hernandez on the UFC 271 main card on Saturday. Following the bout, he cut an impassioned promo trumpeting his love of America and desire for a bonus — and backstage, asked the promotion to put his nickname on his fight kit, rather than his real name.
“I want to ask the UFC, everybody calls me Moicano, right? Even when I go to the hotel, everybody calls me Moicano. But Moicano is not my last name, but everybody thinks it is. My last name is Carneiro. Moicano is my nickname in Portuguese,” the lightweight explained, speaking to media outlets including Cageside Press. Moicano actually means “Mohawk” in his native tongue. “And I ask them to put [it] on my clothes. I want to ask UFC to put Moicano on my clothes.”
Moicano (16-4-1) was fairly critical of his performance Saturday, at least up until the finish. “I thought I did enough, but my first round was not good. I took him down, but I didn’t capitalize on that,” he stated. “And I train for, if I put the guy down, the fight is over. So congratulations [to] him [for standing] up, but I think I have to watch the fight again to see what I did wrong.”
Opponent Hernandez was vocal ahead of UFC 271 about being stuck on the prelims, though the fight would later be promoted. Moicano, however, wasn’t overly concerned either way.
“Man, I have been fighting in the UFC for a long time, and I have a lot of main cards. I usually don’t fight on the undercard. Sometimes. But I don’t really care. At the end of the day, it’s about fighting, it’s about winning, it’s about making money. It’s nice if more people see your work and more people follow you, but at the end of the day, I don’t really care.”
Watch the full UFC 271 post-fight press conference with Renato Moicano above.
