Renato Moicano lost the UFC Vegas 123 main event to Tom Nolan by third-round TKO on Saturday, Oct. 31, at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas. Fighters and fans are focused on how it happened. Late in the second round, Moicano was on Nolan’s back with a body triangle locked in, and referee Dan Miragliotta stood the fighters up. Nolan landed a hard knee soon after, hurt Moicano badly and finished him at 1:28 of the third round, according to Sherdog and MMA News. That stand-up is what happened to Renato Moicano. MMA Fighting and MMA News each called it one of the most controversial officiating calls of the year.
When did the stand-up happen?
Moicano controlled the first round. He took Nolan down, got to his back, set the body triangle and kept looking for chokes. All three Sherdog scorers gave him the round. In the second, Nolan landed a head kick and punches, and then Moicano took him down again with a body lock and went back to the same position. Nolan threw elbows at Moicano’s thigh, and Moicano landed punches from the back, Sherdog’s live account said.
Then Miragliotta stood them up. Reports differ on the timing. MMA News put it at just over a minute left in the round, and Bloody Elbow said about 90 seconds. Not long after the restart, Nolan landed a knee and jumped on top with punches, and he nearly finished it before the horn. Early in the third he landed a one-two and another knee, got on top and won with ground strikes.
Why did the referee stand them up?
Miragliotta has not given a public explanation in any report so far. Bloody Elbow wrote that he decided there wasn’t enough action. MMA News said many critics thought Nolan holding onto Moicano’s arm was what prompted the restart.
The Association of Boxing Commissions’ Unified Rules of MMA say a referee “shall either stand up or break the fighters when neither fighter is able to or fails to demonstrate real, significant and/or sustained effort to advance towards finishing the fight by any method.” The same section adds that “simply maintaining what may be perceived as a superior position” does not count as that effort.
Who criticized the call?
“He capitalized, but the ref won that one,” UFC lightweight Terrance McKinney wrote, according to MMA Fighting. UFC welterweight Belal Muhammad posted “Terrible ref,” and Gilbert Burns and Henry Cejudo also questioned the stand-up, BJPenn.com and MMA Junkie reported. Ariel Helwani wrote that he thought it was among the “top five worst ref standups of all time,” Bloody Elbow reported.
Some viewers wanted the result changed to a no contest. Others weren’t so sure, Bloody Elbow noted, because Moicano had done little with all his time on Nolan’s back.
Has Miragliotta been criticized before?
At UFC Vancouver in October 2025, he stepped in with three seconds left in the first round of Kyle Nelson vs. Matt Frevola while Nelson was landing ground strikes. Then he ruled the fight would go on because the round was over, MMA Fighting and Yahoo Sports reported. UFC executive Marc Ratner said on the broadcast that Miragliotta believed he had heard the horn. Nelson won a decision. On the same card, after Mike Malott landed two low blows on Kevin Holland, Miragliotta gave a warning and did not take a point, MMA Fighting reported.
What does the loss mean for Moicano and Nolan?
Moicano, a 37-year-old Brazilian and former lightweight title challenger, has now lost three of his last four fights, Bloody Elbow reported. The one win in that stretch was a face-crank submission of Chris Duncan in April, after losses to Islam Makhachev and Beneil Dariush, according to BJPenn.com. He is 21-8-1 overall and 13-8 in the UFC, MMA Junkie lists.
Nolan, an Australian southpaw, hasn’t lost since his UFC debut in January 2024, when Nikolas Motta stopped him. MMA Junkie called this the signature result of his career.
Judging the call against the rule
The written rule supports a referee who stands up a fighter who is only holding a dominant spot, so whether this call was wrong comes down to how hard Moicano was working. Sherdog’s live account had him landing punches and keeping control. MMA News said he hunted for a choke and came close several times. On that evidence, he was trying to finish, and the rule’s test is effort, not success. The other side, as Bloody Elbow put it, is that his control didn’t produce much. To judge it yourself, rewatch the last two minutes of Round 2 and count Moicano’s strikes and choke attempts before the restart.
FAQ
Who won Moicano vs. Nolan?
Tom Nolan won by TKO with punches and elbows at 1:28 of the third round at UFC Vegas 123 on Oct. 31, 2026.
Who was the referee for Moicano vs. Nolan?
Dan Miragliotta refereed the main event. He stood the fighters up late in the second round while Moicano had back control with a body triangle.
Can a referee stand up fighters who are on the ground?
Yes. The Unified Rules of MMA tell referees to stand up or break fighters when neither shows real effort to finish, and they say holding a superior position is not enough on its own.
Will the result be overturned?
There were no reports of an appeal or review as of early Sunday, so the result stands as a TKO win for Nolan.
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Updated November 1, 2026