In the main event of UFC Greenville, ranked featherweights in Renato Moicano and Korean Zombie were set to throw down. Many expected the fight to be a war as both Moicano and Korean Zombie have put on highlight reel fights and performances.
Yet, that was not the case. Korean Zombie threw a right hand that dropped Moicano and he was finished by strikes just 58 seconds into the first round. And, according to the Brazilian’s coach, Gabriel de Oliveira, he believed Moicano was too predictable in the fight.
“There is no analysis. There was no fight,” Oliveira explained to Combate. “We are still flabbergasted because that was one of the best camps Renato had. What happened is inexplicable. Maybe there was no technical mistake – because his technique is very refined – but he was predictable in there. He didn’t perform like he should. Maybe he was trying to take his time, but he was too aloof and his jab was studied, for sure. The guy learned the timing of his jab threw an overhand over it. You need to go in there turned up to 11. You need to be focused. We will have to go back to the drawing board, let Renato go a while without training, just rest. Then we’ll reassess some aspects of our training routines.”
Meanwhile, his coach still can’t believe the lost. As he explains in training camp they knew Korean Zombie was going to throw the overhand right, and for whatever reason Moicano didn’t adjust as he should.
“He was okay, he was normal. He recovered well from the weight cut, he was relaxed as usual. I can’t explain what happened. We expected a long fight, five rounds. We expected back-and-forth action. But unfortunately, he was unable to land a single punch. We were surprised by a strike we knew he would throw. We worked on that, we knew he would time the jab and throw the overhand. But I don’t know, I don’t know what happened in the fight. He [Renato] didn’t go. I don’t know if he was distracted. It’s hard for us to swallow that, honestly. We weighed all the pros and cons in that fight and we had everything in our favor. When the fight started, we just couldn’t bring those to work in our advantage.”
