UFC Paris picks and predictions

See who we think will win in the City of Light this weekend.

The fine art of violence heads to Paris. Art by Chris Rini.

The UFC is in Paris this weekend with a pretty underwhelming card. The main event could be fun, with lightweight finishers Renato Moicano and Benoit Saint Denis colliding. The co-main is Nassourdine Imavov vs. Brendan Allen which also might be fun. The rest of the card has a lot of France vs. the World content. However, it’s a little disappointing this card isn’t featuring two of the more exciting and popular French fighters out there (Cyril Gane and Manon Fiorot).

We do have Oumar Sy, though. It’s early days, but he might be the real deal and could be headlining these Paris cards in the future. He’s being brought along slowly, though. He’s on the undercard here taking on Da Woon Jung.

You can check out all our picks for this event below. If you’re using that information for wagering, please do so responsibly (and don’t blame us if you lose!).

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Renato Moicano (+240) vs. Benoit Saint Denis (-300)

Miguel Class: This is a fight that seems like it comes down to whether or not Moicano’s durability holds up enough to survive the early onslaught from Saint Denis. Moicano has a lot of technical advantages: he’s better range, probably a better grappler and craftier submission artist, and a more adept kicking game. Where BSD seems to have the biggest advantage is in potency.

BSD’s overwhelming confidence allowed him to fight like he couldn’t be knocked out, but that might have changed after a devastating loss to Dustin Poirier in his last fight. Generally what we see when aggressive young fighters get humbled by experienced vets is that they do start to tone down their ferocity. But the way they do that is usually by just doing less, not by developing their skills (e.g. improving their defense) to allow them to maintain aggression without blowing their wad early or running face-first into counters.