UFC 329 star Benoit Saint-Denis began his Octagon profession in brutal fashion.
The French star has an enormous opportunity ahead of him within the co-main event of Conor McGregor’s comeback card this Saturday at International Fight Week.
Saint-Denis will fight Paddy Pimblett at UFC 329 in Las Vegas, as they appear to stake their claims to a shot at latest champion Justin Gaethje.
‘God of War’ has quickly risen through the lightweight ranks with numerous impressive results, but his time within the UFC began disastrously in a special division.
Benoit Saint-Denis is on a charge at lightweight 🔥
Are you convinced that ‘God of War’ is a future champion?
Benoit Saint-Denis’ first UFC fight featured probably the most controversial refereeing performances of all time
Following an unbeaten begin to his MMA profession and a few strong performances in Brave CF, Saint-Denis received a short-notice call-up to make his UFC debut.
That got here up at welterweight in October 2021, marking the Frenchman’s second ever fight at 170 kilos. He was clearly outsized by his UFC 267 opponent, Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos, who put a devastating beatdown on Saint-Denis across three rounds in Abu Dhabi.
The fight is remembered for its controversial refereeing performance, after ‘God of War’ was allowed to proceed despite clearly sustaining an excessive amount of damage through the fight and being unable to defend himself.
The referee for Saint-Denis’ debut was fired mid-event after the incident, and that was a call evidently supported by the legendary John McCarthy.
“I used to be going nuts. I used to be standing up in front of my TV, screaming at my TV,” the veteran official said during an episode of Unlocking the Cage with Jimmy Smith on Sirius XM.
“Look, if he had just let the fight go on, it’s incorrect but it surely’s comprehensible and it’s comprehensible based upon there’s pressure there, he’s attempting to let the fight play out and he’s taking a look at it considering he’s doing a superb job of letting this guy proceed on, although he doesn’t realize he’s ruining this guy’s profession. The loss is just not going to destroy his profession, the beatdown and the damage will. In order that was one element.
“Then, (there was) the attention poke,” McCarthy continued. “The best way he handled it was so horrendous and so incorrect for the fighter, and the fighter that had been beat down. So that you’re looking and also you go, ‘Come on, you’ve got to be kidding me.’
“You then take a take a look at the knee, the knee didn’t hit the groin. Possibly the shin did, and okay that’s effective, but to take a degree for it? No, the knee was placed properly and so you only checked out the whole lot he was doing, he was lost, he was in over his head.
“Everyone thinks it’s easy. It’s not. It takes time to work out tips on how to get these items and do them right and be good at them so you only flow with the way you’re doing it and at that moment. He wasn’t ready for that style of fight.”
Saint-Denis soon bounced back from that result when he was given a chance to impress in his natural weight class.
He’s currently on a four-fight winning streak that features a 16-second knockout of Beneil Dariush and a submission of the in-form Mauricio Ruffy.
The French star is now the No. 5-ranked lightweight contender, a spot he’ll hope to solidify at Pimblett’s expense this Saturday.
Receive a digest of our greatest Bloody Elbow content each week direct to your mailbox