Renato Moicano wants to find out what he’s worth on the open market. “I would like to be a free agent,” the lightweight said, according to NDTV Sports, and MMA Fighting’s Morning Report spelled out the plan: Moicano intends to fight out the remainder of his UFC contract and then see who else is interested.
The timing is very Moicano. He said it during fight week for UFC Vegas 123, where he headlines against Tom Nolan on Saturday, Oct. 31, at the Meta APEX.
If there was any doubt about his priorities, media day cleared it up. Nolan called the veteran “one of my heros,” according to a clip posted by Championship Rounds on X. Moicano answered like a man who has done the math on his career: “Fck that Tom Nolan. I’m gonna beat your fcking ass bro, stop that sh*t. I don’t want compliments I want money.” Spinnin Backfist shared footage of the moment with a simple plea for him to never change.
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Nolan is 26, has won five straight, and is headlining a UFC card for the first time. He first agreed to face Moicano at UFC 331 on a week’s notice after Brian Ortega withdrew. Nolan told MMA Fighting that Moicano’s team asked for more time to prepare, which pushed the fight back and turned it into a main event. Nolan, who recently moved to New Zealand with his partner, sees the bout as a shot at the rankings. “Puts me smack bang right in the middle of the top 10, which is a beautiful position for a 26-year-old to be in,” he said. “I’ve got nothing to lose, man.”
Moicano comes in off a second-round finish of Chris Duncan in the UFC Vegas 115 main event, a win that ended Duncan’s four-fight streak. UFC Brasil spent fight week leaning into the phone calls that shaped his career, from the one telling him he’d debut in the UFC to the one telling him he’d face the champion.
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The division around him is in limbo. Champion Justin Gaethje is still healing from his win over Ilia Topuria at UFC White House and has said he’ll talk with his family in the coming months about whether to retire. Arman Tsarukyan is the presumptive next challenger, and featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski told Ariel Helwani this week that he’d vacate his belt to fight Tsarukyan for the 155-pound title if Gaethje steps away. Volkanovski also mentioned Topuria and Paddy Pimblett as a great fight between each other. Moicano’s name didn’t come up in any of that talk.
That’s why I respect the honesty. Moicano has been around long enough to know that compliments from a younger opponent don’t pay a mortgage, and that leverage in contract talks comes from wins. Saying the free agency part out loud before a fight with a hungry 26-year-old raises the stakes in both directions. Beat Nolan and every remaining fight on his deal becomes an audition for a bigger check. Lose to the kid who called him a hero, and the market he wants to test gets a lot smaller. He finds out which one Saturday night in Las Vegas.
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