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Nassourdine Imavov and Brendan Allen entered the cage last night (Sept. 28, 2024) in the co-main event of UFC Paris intent on making their case for a UFC title shot. Neither man delivered a particularly strong argument, but the Parisian crowd certainly managed to stake their own claim!
Looking the UFC Paris card over from bottom-to-top, it was a standard Apex-level event. The main and co-main were good match ups and featured fights relevant to the respective division’s title mix. The rest of the card featured a mix of action fighters and Contenders Series products, just like the rest of the “Fight Night” cards that do not air on pay-per-view (PPV).
That’s now how the French fans treated the card, however. The stands were more full for the opening “Prelims” match up than the first fight at the Sphere a couple weeks ago. Better yet, those fans were loud as all hell from the first bell, carried that momentum through a slow undercard, and kept it going until the doctor saved what was left of Benoit Saint Denis’ face.
Subsequently, the card felt more important. The night felt more interesting. A handful of great moments were created entirely because of the fan involvement. Even an already tremendous moment like Fares Ziam’s all-time highlight reel KO over Matt Frevola was improved by the camera shaking from the raucousness in the stands.
In another example, Morgan Charriere brought the crowd to its feet with an awesome rendition of the French national anthem. Generally, I wouldn’t say I care much for national anthems or fighters singing into the mic — Tyson Fury has forever ruined it — but I enjoyed the enthusiasm if not the acoustics.
It was a dope moment created from a squash match. Gabriel Miranda is not good, but Charriere stopped him with a sweet left hook and then grew his star considerably because the crowd was so into it.
North Carolina’s Bryan Battle also used the crowd to his advantage. On the whole, Kevin Jousset is not a well-known name or particularly significant feather in Battle’s cap, even if Battle stopped him impressively. In a vacuum, it’s not the type of win that would propel Battle as a name all that much.
In Paris, however, he played the heel beautifully. It was a great bit of UFC cinematography to watch Battle talk s—t to the French crowd before the camera slowly panned up to thousands of people flipping him off.
It felt like a huge win!
Thus far, all the UFC trips to Paris have been a success. Given the long, arduous fight to legalize MMA in France, it’s really rewarding to see even on this side of the pond. Hopefully, UFC takes note of the tremendous atmosphere and either brings more events to la France or sends a PPV card to “The City of Light.”
For complete UFC Paris: “Saint-Denis vs. Moicano” results and play-by-play, click HERE!
