UFC middleweight contender Caio Borralho did not need long to react to a bizarre sequence of UFC Vegas 123. Late in the second round of Saturday’s main event at the Meta Apex, referee Dan Miragliotta ordered Renato Moicano and Tom Nolan back to their feet while Moicano had Nolan’s back with the body triangle locked in.
Borralho, watching like the rest of the MMA community, could not make sense of it and argued the call rewarded Nolan for failing to escape:
“So now we reward a guy not knowing how to get out of the back control and we just stand them up? This is the craziest thing I have ever saw in UFC!”
The timing made it worse. Moicano had held back position with the body triangle for about two and a half minutes when Miragliotta intervened, and he was landing punches to open up the choke. Nolan, who spent the first two rounds defending rear-naked choke attempts, came forward on the restart and landed a knee that badly hurt Moicano.
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Moicano survived to the horn but was still recovering in the third, where Nolan reversed his takedown attempt into top position and finished with punches and elbows at 1:28 of round 3.
Borralho was not the only one baffled. Noted MMA journalist Ariel Helwani was also left baffled by the referee’s decision:
“I can’t believe this. Devastating turn of events for Moicano. Instantly flipped the fight. What are we doing?”
While the wider reaction focused on the referee, Moicano’s own response went somewhere else.
Renato Moicano blames himself for the loss in his post on X
Renato Moicano didn’t take any shots at the referee, and his first reaction after the loss was to laud Tom Nolan:
“Congrats ton Nolan you’re a beast!”
The Brazilian also thanked his fans and claimed that his performance on the night wasn’t good:
“I want to thank the fans! I had a terrible performance, I was well trained, I managed to get the back control but I couldn’t do any damage, he was defending well! Congrats to the guy who follows!”
The defeat drops Moicano, 37, to 21-8-1 (13-8 UFC) and leaves him with three losses in his past four. It came in what he has described as a contract fight, with free agency on his mind. Nolan, 26, improves to 12-1 (6-1 UFC) and is currently on a six-fight winning streak.
Edited by Saiyed Adeem Karim
