Moicano wants fight with Swanson at UFC 226

Fresh off of a win over Calvin Kattar at UFC 223, Renato Moicano is targeting a fight with Cub Swanson at UFC 226 in July.

Renato Moicano cruised his way past Calvin Kattar earlier this month at UFC 223. Now, the Brazilian is wasting no time in trying to get his next fight booked, this time against featherweight veteran Cub Swanson.

Since making his debut back in December 2014, Moicano has gone 5-1 in the UFC . His only loss was to the undefeated Brian Ortega in July 2017, who will challenge featherweight champion Max Holloway on the UFC 226 card. Prior to that loss against Ortega, Moicano won consecutive split decision victories over Jeremy Stephens and Zubaira Tukhugov.

Moicano spoke to MMA Fighting about his slim chances of fighting Frankie Edgar, and why he thinks a fight with Swanson would be a “good test.”

“I think that the ideal scenario, though unlikely, would be a fight with Frankie Edgar. I would love that, but I’m new in the UFC and I don’t have a big name, and he already called for a fight with the winner of (Brian) Ortega and (Max) Holloway, so he definitely won’t fight someone not as low in the ranking as myself.

“Since I don’t think about the ideal scenario only, we think that Cub Swanson would be a good test and a good fight for both of us. He’s ranked high in the UFC. He was on a roll in the UFC before his recent losses, one of the best runs of his career. He still is someone you have to beat before fighting for the belt.”

Swanson made his 15th UFC appearance last weekend at UFC Fight Night: Barboza vs Lee, losing to Frankie Edgar by unanimous decision. Suffering a second round submission loss to Ortega before that, his last win came over a year ago now to Artem Lobov at UFC Fight Night 108.

“I always liked to watch his fights as a fan, like the ones against Doo Ho Choi and Stephens, but I don’t think he fought the same way with Ortega and Frankie Edgar. I don’t know if he kind of froze because he had already lost to Frankie Edgar, but he accepted the defeat. He didn’t go for the win.”

UFC 226 is set for July 7th at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, with Stipe Miocic defending his heavyweight title vs. light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier in the main event.