Renato Moicano was likely one win away from a crack at featherweight champion Max Holloway had he defeated Jose Aldo in February. Instead, Aldo stomped out those hopes for the time being, sending Moicano back down the line. Alexander Volkanovski, on the contrary, was successful in his outing against Aldo, earning the unanimous decision over Jose Aldo at UFC 236 and thereby becoming the #1 contender. One thing that can be learned from the booking of Max Holloway vs. Frankie Edgar at UFC 240 is that even if Moicano had defeated Edgar in February, maybe he would not have been next for the title shot after all:

“I think Max and Volkanovski makes more sense, because Volkanovski is coming off a big win,” Moicano told Bloody Elbow. “He beat Chad Mendes; Mendes was a great contender. And Jose Aldo is a legend. So for me, the fight to do is Max and Volkanovski.”

Instead, the UFC decided to give the next featherweight title shot to Frankie as what Moicano describes as a gift or something of a lifetime achievement award:

“I know Frankie Edgar has a lot of history for the UFC,” Moicano said. “He was champion at lightweight. He has a huge fanbase. Everybody loves him; he is a great guy. For me, he is starting to think about retiring, because I think he is getting (to be) 40, I don’t know.

“I saw him talking about something like, ‘UFC has to give me this title shot, because I did so much for the company.’ It’s like a reward to Frankie. I agree with that too, because Frankie Edgar is a great former champion. And it’ll be a great fight.”

Renato Moicano will look to begin rebuilding a case for his own featherweight title shot when he takes on The Korean Zombie this Saturday at UFC Greenville.