Renato Moicano had a day to cool off about Dan Miragliotta. He did not cool off.
The Brazilian lightweight, who lost to Tom Nolan by third-round TKO at UFC Vegas 123 on Saturday night, told MMA Fighting he wants the veteran referee to go do something anatomically ambitious to himself. Moicano’s words, as Bloody Elbow printed them with the asterisks doing heavy lifting: “I want him to go f himself.” He extended the invitation further. “Him and everyone else.”
The flashpoint was Miragliotta’s decision to stand the fighters up while Moicano had back mount on Nolan. Back mount. The position every grappling coach on earth spends years trying to get you into.
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Moicano said he didn’t remember any warning before the call. He added that he’d seen people online claiming the stand-up was within the rules, possibly under a new rule, and that he’d never heard of anyone getting stood up from mount or from someone’s back.
“It was the first time I’d ever seen it,” Moicano said. “I was surprised, but I decided to keep going because I thought, man, what can I do? I thought about complaining, but then I told myself, listen, focus on the fight. But I clearly lost my focus.”
That last line is the honest part. The morning after the fight, before he got around to the ref, the 37-year-old spent his first comments on what he called his terrible performance. He’s not filing an appeal with the Nevada Athletic Commission, and he’s not asking the UFC to keep Miragliotta away from his future fights. He just wants it on the record that he’s furious.
Bloody Elbow also reported that Moicano was hospitalized after the loss, along with one other fighter from the UFC Vegas 123 card.
Nolan: Don’t Look at Me
Nolan, for his part, used his post-fight press conference to make sure nobody pinned the stand-up on him. He said he was talking to the referee during the exchange but wasn’t lobbying to get off the mat.
“I had nothing to do with the ref standing it up. It’s not my fault. I’m in the middle of a fight,” Nolan said. “The referee told me to stand up, so I stood up.”
Fair enough. Nobody expects the guy with someone on his back to argue for staying there.
Sterling Weighs In
Former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling jumped in Monday morning, posting a breakdown on X titled “WORST UFC REFEREEING EVER?!” that goes through Moicano vs. Nolan. In the same video, Sterling also broke down the latest work from rising contenders Carlos Prates and Michael Morales, two names who keep making highlight reels and making their division’s top 10 nervous.
The UFC’s own Paramount+ account posted a clip of the stand-up and asked fans how they felt about it, which is a bold choice when the answer is this predictable.
My take: Moicano deserves some blame, and he took it himself. He said he lost his focus, and a 37-year-old veteran knows a bad call doesn’t erase the next two minutes. But standing up a fighter who has the back is the kind of call that makes jiu-jitsu guys question why they bothered learning it. If there’s a rule that covers it, the Nevada commission should say so out loud, and soon, because “I’ve never heard of that” from a guy with Moicano’s mileage is the most damning review Miragliotta could get.
