Renato Moicano returns to the cage this Saturday April 4th against Chris Duncan in the main event of a UFC Fight Night held at the Meta Apex.
That’s a big drop in visibility for the Brazilian fighter compared to his last two fights. At UFC 311 he stepped into the pay-per-view’s main event against Islam Makhachev at the last minute after Arman Tsarukyan injured his back. And then at UFC 317 he was on the main card against Beneil Dariush. Unfortunately for “Money” Moicano, he’d lose both these fights. Now he’s still a headliner … but headlining the Apex against a relative unknown ATT teammate, Chris Duncan.
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While his fights haven’t gone well, Moicano’s profile as a streamer has grown over 2025 to the point where people have been questioning whether he spends too much time on it over training. Renato addressed that during media day interviews.
“Last year was not that good for me,” he admitted. “2025, I lost two fights in a row and then I was scheduled to fight [Brian Ortega], a fighter that I lost against. Since last year I’ve been focused on fighting. So I kind of took a little bit of time off from social media, so that was beneficial for my training camp.”
Fans of Moicano have pointed out that his ‘time off’ from social media didn’t stop him from uploading two videos a week on his YouTube channel. That makes him money, and we all know Moicano wants money. He has changed his attitude a bit towards how he earns it, though.
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This is Renato’s first fight in the Paramount+ era which means his first chance to earn a $100,000 bonus. The No. 10 ranked lightweight sounded more focused on making sure he gets the W.
“$100,000 is going to be beneficial, it’s going to be good,” Moicano said. “But at the same time, I feel like I have to win. I’m not thinking too much about the bonus. I’m thinking about the win … It’s never good to lose. It’s f–king terrible. But it’s so good when you win, I want to get that feeling of winning again, especially in the main event. One-hundred percent that adds pressure.”
He’ll have to get past Chris Duncan, who is unranked but on a four fight win streak. Duncan also happens to come from the same gym as Renato Moicano.
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“I never thought I’d fight someone from American Top Team, but it happens,” Moicano said. “And then I just have to be cordial, have respect for him. I don’t have nothing against him. I just want to win. I want to win the fight. I have no bad blood. But don’t get me wrong, I’m going over there to finish him.”
Moicano also claimed he and Duncan haven’t trained together recently.
“That was such a long time ago, I have not really trained with him for a long time,” he said. “I watch his fights in the UFC. He got way better in the grappling. So I’m not disrespecting him at all. I’m not thinking this is going to be easy. It’s UFC. Every fight is a challenge. I think Chris Duncan is a challenge.”
The bookies think so too. Lines currently have Moicano a slight +150 dog to -175 favorite Duncan.
