Moicano vs. Nolan is the main event of UFC Fight Night on 31 October, a lightweight bout at the Meta APEX in the Las Vegas area, also billed as UFC Vegas 123. Renato Moicano gets Tom Nolan after Brian Ortega withdrew from their planned fight at UFC 331 with a cut, according to Cageside Press. It is Nolan's first UFC headliner.
The main event: how the fight came together after Ortega's withdrawal
Moicano was booked to face Ortega at UFC 331. Cageside Press reported that Ortega suffered a cut and pulled out, and that the UFC announced the change in a statement saying the bout had been removed from the card because of injury. Other outlets said the cut was above Ortega's left eyebrow and that this was the second time Ortega has withdrawn from a planned fight with Moicano.
No short-notice replacement was found for UFC 331, so the UFC moved Moicano to the 31 October card and paired him with Nolan. Moicano said Nolan would be a harder fight than Ortega, according to reports. The event is set for 31 October, with Pugna MMA listing the start at 21:00 UTC.
Renato Moicano: a fourth UFC main event
Moicano is 21-7-1 and ranked No. 8 in the UFC lightweight division in our rankings. Cageside Press describes this as his fourth UFC main event and his second headliner of 2026, after the April Fight Night against Chris Duncan, which he won by second-round submission.
The run before that was rough. He challenged Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title at UFC 311 in January 2025 and was submitted in the first round, then lost a three-round decision to Beneil Dariush at UFC 317 in June 2025. Before those came a second-round TKO of Benoît Saint Denis in September 2024. Of his 21 wins, 11 are by submission, 8 by decision and 2 by knockout or TKO.
Tom Nolan: five straight wins and a first headliner
Nolan, the Australian nicknamed "Big Train", is 11-1 and sits at No. 11 in our UFC lightweight rankings. Cageside Press also lists him at No. 11, though rankings differ between outlets.
His last four UFC fights are all wins. He beat Alex Reyes by decision at UFC 305 in August 2024, Viacheslav Borshchev by decision at UFC 312 in February 2025, Charlie Campbell by first-round submission in September 2025 and Farès Ziam by decision in June 2026. Of his 11 wins, 5 came by knockout or TKO, 1 by submission and 5 by decision.
He has gone the distance in three of his last four bouts, and the main event is his first chance to headline a UFC card.
What decides the fight
The numbers point to a clear contrast. Moicano's career is built on grappling, with more than half of his wins coming by submission, and he has the experience of having shared a cage with the best lightweights in the world. Nolan has finished more of his wins by strikes than by submission, and three of his last four fights went to a decision.
The open questions are practical: how Nolan handles a veteran who is comfortable on the mat, and whether Moicano, who lost both of his 2025 fights, can follow his April win over Duncan with another. In our lightweight rankings Moicano is No. 8 and Nolan No. 11.
The rest of the card
According to Pugna MMA's event data, the card also includes Mickey Gall vs. Zachary Reese at middleweight, Randy Brown vs. Jacobe Smith at welterweight, Ode' Osbourne vs. Cody Durden at flyweight, Francis Marshall vs. Dakota Hope at featherweight, Tainara Lisboa vs. Lucia Szabova at bantamweight and Talita Alencar vs. Piera Rodríguez at strawweight.
Hope stepped in for Gastón Bolaños, who withdrew from the Marshall fight with an eye laceration, according to reports. Card changes are common in the final two weeks, so check the bout list again closer to the event.
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