Renato Moicano left the Meta Apex on Saturday night bound for a Las Vegas hospital, one of two fighters the UFC sent out for precautionary evaluations after UFC Vegas 123. Promotion officials confirmed to MMA Mania that Moicano went for CT scans of his head and face following his third-round TKO loss to Tom Nolan in the Halloween main event. Welterweight Farman Hasanov, who opened the main card, got the same scans plus treatment for a nasty laceration. As of Sunday, neither fighter’s results had been made public.
The Moicano fight is going to be argued about for a while, and most of the arguing will be aimed at referee Dan Miragliotta. In the second round, Moicano had Nolan’s back with a body triangle locked and was hunting a choke. He was in a dominant spot and working. Miragliotta stood them up anyway. Nolan almost immediately landed a knee to Moicano’s nose, hurt him badly with follow-up strikes and nearly finished him before the horn. In the third, the Australian reversed a Moicano takedown and poured on ground-and-pound until Miragliotta waved it off at 1:28 of Round 3.
The ESPN stats, as cited by Essentially Sports, are brutal. Nolan landed 69 significant strikes. Moicano landed nine. That’s the kind of gap you usually see when a guy is fighting a heavy bag, and it’s why nobody should be surprised the UFC wanted pictures of his face.
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This isn’t new territory for the Brazilian. He was sent for precautionary checks after his decision loss to Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 272 in 2022, and again after his decision win over Drew Dober at UFC Vegas 85 in 2024. Moicano, a former lightweight title challenger, is now 21-8-1. More concerning for a 37-year-old, he’s 1-3 across his last four appearances and finishes 2026 at 1-1 in UFC main events.
Hasanov’s night ended with blood. The Azerbaijani welterweight, 31, held his own against Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani for two rounds before an elbow opened a gruesome cut across his left eyelid in the third. Miragliotta paused the action and brought in the ringside physician, who ruled Hasanov couldn’t continue. The doctor stoppage came at 2:11 of Round 3. It’s the first loss of Hasanov’s pro career, dropping him to 5-1 overall and 1-1 in the Octagon after he beat Eric Nolan in his debut at UFC Baku on June 27. Essentially Sports noted there’s no record of him needing hospital care after that debut win.
No timelines exist for either man yet. Both returns hinge on what the scans show and whether the camps release anything.
My take: Miragliotta handed Nolan a reset he hadn’t earned, and that’s a legitimate gripe. But I’ve lost enough money backing guys who were supposedly winning until the ref screwed them to know where that argument ends. Moicano was on the wrong end of a 69-to-9 striking split, and the stand-up doesn’t explain the third round, when Nolan reversed his takedown and beat on him from top position. At 37, with one win in his last four, the betting market is going to price Moicano as a fighter on the way down no matter who his next opponent is, and I’m not sure it’ll be wrong.
