Renato Moicano became an online sensation over the past few years in Brazil, going from just another UFC fighter to a very successful and popular YouTuber. And as he enters the UFC Vegas 115 main event bout against teammate Chris Duncan on April 4, Moicano admits to being flabbergasted with the platform he’s managed to built for himself on YouTube.
Moicano got his feet wet as a YouTuber during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, testing different formats between podcasts, interviews and livestreams in Portuguese. Living in Florida and contracted by an Uinted States-based MMA organization, Moicano switched to an English-language format and grew his platform to 100,000 subscribers. The Brazilian audience still seemed like a world to explore, first in non-fighting topics such as politics, but the path became obvious when a video about a UFC event in Rio de Janeiro “blew up.”
“As an entrepreneur, I saw that this space was doing better,” Moicano told MMA Fighting.
Fast-forward a couple of years and Moicano is approaching 300,000 subscribers on his Portuguese-language YouTube channel Renato Money Moicano, surpassing 25 million views with just over 330 videos posted.
“It’s crazy, right? I never imagined that in my life,” Moicano said. “One thing is giving opinions, another thing is making videos that get views. I went all-in on MMA and started doing live reaction streams, and it really worked. The videos are doing well, averaging 90 to 100k views, which is solid, but the livestreams are exploding. For any event, we get 6,000 people, sometimes 10,000, sometimes 20,000.”
Moicano’s approach to the livestreams was an immediate success, and it keeps getting bigger and bigger. His UFC 326 live reaction of Charles Oliveira vs. Max Holloway piled up 875,000 views, peaking at 36,000 people watching live simultaneously.
“People connected with the live format and I think I really have a knack for it because, at the same time that I understand MMA and I’m kind of funny,” Moicano said. “I also have a lot of experience, so I can talk about a wide range of topics. But to answer you objectively, it surprised me a lot. I don’t understand why people are watching me like that. It’s funny.”
“Once an idea hits the market, that’s it,” he continued. “If there’s no entertainment, it doesn’t work today. We’re seeing that everywhere — in politics, in journalism, you know? It doesn’t work anymore for someone to just sit there and try to act authoritative. The audience has so many options now that you have to entertain, you have to be funny. You have to keep people engaged.”
Moicano said he’s making good profits with the videos and livestreams, enough to provide to his family. Not to mention sponsorship deals based on his ever-growing social media platform.
“Honestly, I want to be much bigger,” Moicano said. “After I retire, I want to take over this space. I want to build a brand and get sponsorships because that’s what really makes money, not just views. I have plans, and that’s why I went in this direction. You already had fighters outside of Brazil doing this, although they still focus their channels too much on themselves, you know? Like, their training, their diet. Man, nobody cares about that. Nobody wants to know about your training, your diet, this or that. They want to laugh. Thank God I got into MMA early and things are going well.”
“With what I make from YouTube today, from AdSense, I could already live well in the United States,” he continued. “I’m also pretty chill with money, my house is paid off. I’d live a normal, good life. Now, in Brazil, I’d live really damn well. If the UFC fired me today and I moved to Brazil, I’d be totally fine. I’m not even talking about sponsorships, you know? It’s good income. But where I really make good money is with sponsors. Signing a one- or two-year deal with sponsors, that’s it. It’s a huge amount of money. There’s a lot of money on the internet.”
Moicano’s main dream when he started his YouTube channel was to one day get called to become a color-commentator for the UFC. The Brazilian UFC commentary team on Paramount+ currently includes four UIFC veterans — Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira, Demian Maia, Carlos Barreto and Vitor Miranda —, but Moicano wonders if his style would work for an official broadcast.
“If they call me someday it would be great, but I think it’s very unlikely because the way I do livestreams now is the way people want to watch,” Moicano said. “People want to see a bad fighter being called bad. The other day I was watching a really bad fighter just messing everything up and the UFC commentator has to say things like, ‘Wow, that’s tough.’ But that guy sucks. People want to see the truth. If I get called, I’ll keep being the same [laughs]. The audience liked when I [was a guest commentator for the UFC once]. When I said, ‘How can this guy call himself a black belt?’ If someone is good, you have to say they’re good. That’s the difference with the internet. Since you don’t go through a bunch of producers, your content is more real. People want that.”
And even though Moicano has fully adopted the “Money” moniker after intense and memorable post-fight interviews, the Brazilian said he did not create his YouTube channel for the checks.
“I built a fighting career because I liked it and that career led me to making money,” Moicano said. “When it comes to content, I watch a lot of content, I think about how to improve the livestream, but I don’t think about making money. That will inevitably make you money. Set a goal and improve yourself. If you want to earn more, you have to become more. ‘Moicano, that sucks.’ That’s the world, man. Nobody cares about you. You have to be better in the market to make more money. You have to deliver value to people in a different way. That’s what I try to do. It’s not about the money.”
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