"Anyone can cook," was the late chef Gusteau's motto in the Pixar classic, "Ratatouille," which my family just watched again last week for the umpteenth time. But can anyone perform a UFC-approved guillotine choke on statism?
Still in the ring following his surprise win against Jalin Turner in Las Vegas on Saturday night, Brazilian UFC fighter Renato Moicano gave a brief but impassioned speech in defense of guns, private property, and the Austrian school of economics. He even mentioned libertarian Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises by name.
Well, that was as unexpected as a rookie UFC fighter finding himself out cold on the mat after getting floored by an opponent's "clothesline from hell" move.
Moicano finished off Turner 4:11 into the second round with a classic ground-and-pound, after nearly getting taken out himself more than once in the first round.
It looked like this.
RENATO MOICANO WITH THE GROUND AND POUND FINISH 💰#UFC300 pic.twitter.com/fr6cm5xKZo
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) April 14, 2024
If that wasn't enough to get your blood pumping, wait until you see what happened immediately after the fight.
Here's the clip, including a warning about some salty language if that kind of thing offends you.
I love this guy! Read Austrian Economics "motherfuckers" 😂😂😂 @moicanoufc pic.twitter.com/FwZ66n4wml
— Christian Malazarte (@ChristianMalaza) April 14, 2024
"If you love your f****** country, read Ludwig von Mises and the six lessons of the Austrian school of economics, motherf******!" might be the greatest sports quote of all time, and I don't care that it isn't about sports. If Moicano doesn't quite have the grace of Mises when he wrote, "Socialism is an alternative to capitalism as potassium cyanide is an alternative to water," there's no doubting Moicano's enthusiasm for liberty.
And it isn't as though Moicano doesn't have firsthand experience of what it's like living in a country that's traveled far down Friedrich Hayek's well-trod road to serfdom. Brazil's hard-left president, Lula da Silva, is back in office thanks to voters who A) obviously never read von Mises and B) got collective amnesia after his first disastrous time in office from 2003-2010.
Lula is a Hamas-loving socialist who has brought inflation back to his country after it finally recovered from the stupid COVID-19 lockdowns in 2022. He's also on a tear against freedom of speech because of course he is.
Moicano might fight in the lightweight UFC division but when it comes to liberty, he's an intellectual heavyweight as far as I'm concerned. But as Mises himself said, "Many who are self-taught far excel the doctors, masters, and bachelors of the most renowned universities."
The snobby restaurant critic in "Ratatouille," Anton Ego — superbly voiced by Peter O'Toole — made no secret of his "disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto," but he finally learned what Gusteau had meant. "Not everyone can become a great artist," Ego wrote in his review of Gusteau's rat-chef restaurant, "but a great artist can come from anywhere."
And so can a great defender of human liberty, but the hammerfists and elbow strikes will cost you extra.
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