Daniel Cunningham
This past Saturday in the main event of UFC Vegas 115, we saw a lightweight matchup with a ranking on the line. 10th ranked Renato Moicano (21-7-1) was looking to defend his spot in the rankings against surging contender Chris Duncan (15-3).
Duncan entered the bout against his teammate with a lot of momentum. He had gone 6-1 inside the octagon which included a four-fight win streak with three finishes entering the octagon on Saturday night.
Duncan admitted that when he trained with Moicano in the past, Moicano would always get the better of him. He set out to show that those training sessions were a thing in the past and it was his time. Unfortunately at UFC Vegas 115, it was more of the same for Duncan.
Moicano had his way on the feet and in the second round, Duncan was bloodied up and beaten. Moicano ultimately got his back later in the round and secured a rear naked choke for the submission win.
What’s next after UFC Vegas 115?
In terms of divisional position, this was a big step up and opportunity for Duncan. He wasn’t ranked but he had the chance to take out the guy ranked tenth in the division and unfortunately, he couldn’t get it done on Saturday night. Now, he goes back to the drawing board as he’ll look to try and climb back to the UFC rankings.
In terms of his next opponent, I think we could look at another lightweight contender not far from the rankings who is also coming off a loss. Last week, Ignacio Bahamondes lost to Tofiq Musayev in Seattle which was his second straight loss following a loss to Rafael Fiziev last June.
Prior to those two losses, Bahamondes had a 6-1 stretch in the UFC just like Chris Duncan did. Seems like a perfect time to pair these two against each other and either someone will re-establish themselves or someone will have a lot of soul searching to do following another loss.
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