Renato ‘Moicano’ will look to snap a two-fight skid on Saturday.
| Getty/UFC
While Renato
Carneiro and Chris
Duncan haven’t been all that close in recent years while
sharing the gym at
American Top Team, that doesn’t make the matchup against a
former training partner any easier.
“Moicano” and Duncan will square off in the
UFC Vegas 115 main event on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las
Vegas. Carneiro recalls training with Duncan in the past — but it
was quite some time ago.
“It is difficult; it is the first time [I’ve faced a teammate],”
Carneiro told UFC.com. “But at the same time, everybody wants
to win, everybody wants to win their next fight, and that’s what I
want too.
“Back in the day, we trained together a couple years ago, but I
don’t remember the last time I trained with him; I think it was a
long time ago.”
Duncan faced another ATT stablemate, Mateusz
Rebecki, last August at UFC on ESPN 71. “The Problem” emerged
with a unanimous decision triumph in what turned out to be one of
the year’s most entertaining fights. That is the type of fight
“Moicano” wants to avoid when he steps into the Octagon with
Duncan, who has won six of his seven
UFC outings.
“I don’t want to [have a long brawl],” Carneiro said. “I think I’m
more technical than him, I think I can do a different fight because
Rebecki is small and he always fights like that. He is a dangerous
fighter, but I think he’s a guy that is not supposed to be 155
—he’s too short —but he still manages to get good wins, to fight
good fights. I think it will be different, but we’ll see.”
No Pressure, Just Love
As for Carneiro, he will be looking to right the ship after the
second two-fight skid of his professional career. After suffering a
first-round submission defeat in a short-notice lightweight title
bout at UFC 311, the Brazilian dropped a three-round verdict to
Beneil
Dariush at UFC 317 this past June. He was slated to face
Brian
Ortega at UFC 326 on March 7 before his opponent withdrew.
Carneiro says he doesn’t feel any additional pressure to return to
the win column on Saturday night.
“Not really —I’m not feeling too much pressure because at the end
of the day, I do this because I love it, I love to compete, I love
to fight, and I just want to have a good performance for myself,”
he said. “Of course, I want to get the double check, and if I can,
the triple check, but let’s see.
“I want to make money. I want to beat Chris Duncan and get another
fight soon, but I’m not thinking about that. I need to beat Chris
Duncan first, and this is a dangerous fight.”