UFC lightweight Tom Nolan says he never asked Dan Miragliotta to stand him and Renato Moicano back up in Round 2 of Saturday’s UFC Vegas 123 main event. He was asking the referee to stop the punches landing on the back of his head.
Moicano had Nolan’s back with the body triangle locked deep into Round 2 when Miragliotta ordered both men upright, a call that drew boos from the crowd and heavy criticism from fighters and commentators. Nolan had been trying to get the referee’s attention moments earlier (h/t ufc/2026/11/01/ufc-vegas-123-tom-nolan-reaction-renato-moicano-dan-miragliotta/92545311007/?taid=6ae6c051f24b6b00016d2537″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer” data-is-sponsored=”false”>MMA Junkie):
“To be clear, when I was talking to the ref, I wasn’t asking for a standup,” Nolan said. “He was punching me in the back of the head. I was just telling the ref. He was just framing my head forward and throwing his left hand and hitting me in the back of the head. I was just letting Dan know, like, the rules are we can’t punch in the back of the head. If that wasn’t a rule, that’s fine. But it is a rule, so do something about it. Don’t just watch him punch me in the back of the head. That was what I was saying to the ref.
Nolan added that back of the head punches were dangerous. He was also fine with losing the round, and reiterated he had nothing to do with the referee’s decision:
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“I said, ‘Ref, he’s punching me in the back of the head.’ I’m fine with those shots on front, but don’t punch me on the back of the head. There’s a reason that’s a dangerous place to hit someone. You can kill someone hitting someone there. That’s what I was talking about. I wasn’t looking for a standup. I had five rounds to work. If I had lost that round because he was on my back, I was completely comfortable with that. I had nothing to do with the ref standing it up. It’s not my fault.”
Nolan also stressed he simply followed the instruction:
“I’m in the middle of a fight,” he told reporters. “I just did what I was told. He said, ‘Stand up,’ so I stood up.”
Moicano spent most of the opening 10 minutes on Nolan’s back hunting the rear-naked choke, and the Australian defended his neck through the first round. After the restart, Nolan hurt him with a knee, dropped him and nearly forced a stoppage before the horn, then finished it with ground strikes at 1:28 of Round 3, his sixth straight win.
Renato Moicano congratulates Tom Nolan on X after UFC Vegas 123 loss
Renato Moicano, for his part, made no complaint about the standup. On X, he congratulated Tom Nolan and called him a “beast.”
In a follow-up written in Portuguese and translated, he added:
“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 result left Moicano 21-8-1 in MMA, beaten in three of his past four.
Edited by Saiyed Adeem Karim
