‘Money Moicano’ favors Islam Makhachev over ATT stablemate Arman Tsarukyan

On By Littum

Renato “Money Moicano” Carneiro will take plenty of momentum into his bout with Beneil Dariush at UFC 311.

The Brazilian standout has won his last four Octagon appearances and is coming off a second-round stoppage of Benoit St. Denis at UFC Paris last September. Although he’s already had plenty of success, Dariush would be Carneiro’s most significant win to date.

“St. Denis was a good grappler as well, but I believe Dariush is even better, so I believe that fight will go to the ground,” Moicano recently told Sherdog.com, while declining to predict a clear method for victory.

“I’ll knock him out, submit him or win by decision. I don’t know. I’m just confident that I’m in a great position and I’m leaving that Octagon with another win.”

The American Top Team representative also does not have a callout in mind should he have his hand raised on Saturday night at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.

“I don’t care about names,” he said. “I want fights that will give me more financial returns. ‘Moicano’ wants money.”

The lightweight division features plenty of talented grapplers, and Carneiro, who is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, pointed to the top of the weight class when picking who he feels is the best.

“The grappling concept is quite broad,” Carneiro said. “But in terms of MMA and the last fights among ranked lightweights, it has to be Islam (Makhachev), Charles (Oliveira) and (Arman) Tsarukyan. If Khabib was still active, I’d put him first.”

Tsarukyan, another ATT product, will challenge Makhachev for lightweight gold in the UFC 311 headliner. While they are from the same gym, Carneiro revealed that he did not work with Tsarukyan this time.

“We trained a long time ago – not this time,” he said. “But I was able to see a lot of his sparring and I can see he’s in good shape.”

However, Carneiro would not go so far as to give his ATT stablemate the nod over Makhachev.

“Tsarukyan comes well prepared, but unfortunately Islam is much bigger, heavier and has a better wrestling ability, so I think he is the favorite,” Carneiro said. “But in a five-round MMA fight, anything can happen. Arman did his homework and is coming in good shape and can surprise the champion.”