Renato Moicano had a ready-made excuse sitting right in front of him, gift-wrapped by referee Dan Miragliotta, and he never touched it. Shortly after Tom Nolan stopped him in the third round of the UFC Vegas 123 main event, the UFC Halloween card at Meta Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night, the No. 8-ranked lightweight went on social media and took the loss on his own shoulders.
“Congrats, Tom Nolan. You’re a beast!” Moicano wrote. “I want to thank the fans! I had a terrible performance. I was well-trained. I managed to get back control, but I couldn’t do any damage. He was defending well! Congrats to the guy. We move forward!”
No shot at Miragliotta. No complaint about the reset. That is a remarkable amount of restraint given how the fight actually played out.
For most of the first two rounds, Moicano was doing exactly what he wanted. He kept finding Nolan’s back, locked in a body triangle and rode him like a man who had done this a few hundred times in the gym. Then, late in the second, Miragliotta stood them up even though Moicano still had the dominant position and was landing short punches. It was the refereeing equivalent of a dad yanking the Nintendo cord out of the wall while you’re winning.
Nolan made him pay immediately. The Australian hurt Moicano with a knee on the restart and came close to finishing him before the horn. In the third, Nolan kept the pressure on, reversed a takedown attempt and poured on punches and elbows from top position until Miragliotta waved it off, less than two minutes into the round.
The frustrating part, and the part Moicano admitted himself, is that all that back control didn’t produce much. He had the position for long stretches and couldn’t turn it into real damage or a finish, so when the fight hit the feet, Nolan was fresh enough to change it in an instant.
The loss leaves the 37-year-old Brazilian with three defeats in his last four appearances. His only win in that run was a main event submission of Chris Duncan. Before fight week, Moicano said he plans to finish out his current UFC contract and test free agency, and after Saturday he has two fights remaining on that deal.
Nolan, meanwhile, just had the night of his life. The 26-year-old pushed his winning streak to six, and beating a ranked veteran in a main event is easily the biggest result on his résumé.
My take: Miragliotta’s standup was indefensible, and Moicano would have been well within his rights to torch it. He didn’t, and good for him, because he’s right that the bigger problem was his own lack of offense from a dream position. Credit Nolan too. He survived two rounds of getting ridden, then hurt a dangerous vet the second he got a look, which is what a real contender does. As for Moicano, the free-agency math just got brutal. Two fights to rebuild his value, at 37, coming off a stoppage. He needs a win in that first fight back, or the open market won’t be nearly as open as he hoped.
