Renato Moicano and Tom Nolan stepped on the scale Friday morning at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas, and their lightweight main event for UFC Vegas 123 is good to go. The non-title bout carried a 156-pound limit, and Cageside Press’s results listed 155.5 next to the headlining pairing. All 24 fighters on the card were scheduled to weigh in, with Ag. Fight streaming the session live, according to MMA Fighting.
The card, which MMA Junkie lists as UFC Fight Night 292, goes down Saturday, October 31. Prelims start at 5 p.m. ET on Paramount+, and the main card follows at 8 p.m. ET.
Moicano (21-7-1 MMA, 13-7 UFC) comes in ranked No. 8 at 155, per MMA Weekly. The former lightweight title challenger got back on track in April, submitting Chris Duncan in the second round to end a two-fight losing streak. “Money” had stumbled through a couple of rough outings before that, so the Duncan finish mattered a lot for where he stood heading into this one.
View post on X
Nolan (11-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) is the No. 12 ranked lightweight and the hotter name right now. The Australian has won five in a row since dropping his promotional debut to Nikolas Motta, which is still the only loss on his UFC ledger. Saturday marks the first time he’s headlined a UFC card. Beat a ranked veteran like Moicano and he’s suddenly asking for names in the top 10 instead of hoping for them.
The rest of the card
The co-main is a welterweight scrap between Randy Brown (20-8 MMA, 14-8 UFC) and Jacobe Smith (13-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC), who stepped in as a late replacement. That bout has a 171-pound limit. Smith is perfect as a pro, and Brown has 22 UFC fights of experience, so that matchup is a real test in both directions.
Also on the main card are Ode Osbourne vs. Cody Durden at flyweight, Yana Santos vs. Luana Santos at women’s bantamweight, and Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani vs. Farman Hasanov at welterweight.
View post on X
The prelims feature Francis Marshall vs. Dakota Hope, Rodrigo Sezinando vs. Theodor Berggren, Julian Erosa vs. Lee Jeong-yeong, Zachary Reese vs. Mickey Gall, Nick Klein vs. Joseph Kropschot, and Talita Alencar vs. Piera Rodriguez. The opener belongs to Lucia Szabová, the Oktagon MMA double champion, who makes her UFC debut against Tainara Lisboa at women’s bantamweight.
My take: Nolan is the guy to watch, because five straight wins and a first headliner against a top-10 name is exactly the setup that turns a prospect into a contender in one night. But I’m setting an alarm for 5 p.m. ET, because a two-division Oktagon champ walking out first on a Halloween card is the kind of debut I’d never skip, and I want to see if Szabová looks like she belongs in the opening round.
