Tom Nolan Reacts to Controversial Stand-Up in Renato Moicano Win
Tom Nolan got his hand raised against Renato Moicano by TKO at UFC Vegas 123 on Halloween night. However, the Aussie confessed that the controversial stand-up took something away from his win.
In the second round of the bout, referee Dan Miragliotta stood the fighters up while Moicano had Nolan's back with a body triangle locked in. Soon after the reset, “Big Train” took over and finished the Brazilian with ground-and-pound, including punches and elbows, at 1:28 of round three. This fight extended his UFC win streak to six. Now, the 26-year-old has addressed the call on The Ariel Helwani Show.
Tom Nolan Sides With Renato Moicano on Dan Miragliotta’s Call
Speaking during the sit-down, the Aussie sided with Renato Moicano and agreed that Miragliotta made the wrong decision. He believes that if he were in “Money Moicano's” shoes and had worked hard to secure that position and taken his back, he would be livid about losing it due to a stand-up. He said:
“I’d be pissed off if that was me and I had the back and it got stood up, for sure. I don’t think he should have stood that up, but I do think the crowd had a big influence on him.”
Nolan also pointed out that the boos from the crowd pushed Dan Miragliotta into making the call. Interestingly, Moicano feels the same way, as he called the boos “a huge factor” in the stand-up.
Even so, the rising lightweight feels that the result would have been the same even without the referee's intervention. According to him, "Money" wasn't inflicting much damage from the back, and the game plan was always to wait for his moment. He added:
“However, I still think the fight was gonna go the same way. He wasn’t having a great deal of success on the back. I was defending well. The game plan was to be patient there and look for the knockout in the later rounds.”
Check out Tom Nolan’s comments below:
Tom Nolan Offers Renato Moicano a Rematch “in a Heartbeat”
Nonetheless, the 12-1 lightweight is more than willing to run it back with Moicano. That said, he believes a rematch would end even faster. He said:
“If he wanted it, in a heartbeat, I would give him that opportunity. I honestly think it would probably go very similar, but a lot earlier. Now that I’ve felt him, I think it’d be over pretty quickly. I don’t wanna disrespect him or be out here calling him out.”
The controversial call has left Tom Nolan more wary of the referees. As a result, he intends to pay more attention to the official in the cage going forward. He explained:
“Unfortunately, moving forward in all my fights, I feel like I’m gonna have to monitor what the referee’s doing as well. I don’t want this to happen again. It’s not fair on anyone.”
For now, a rematch between the two would have to wait as Moicano plans to take at least six months off, and according to him, he has three fights left on his UFC contract.
