Australian lightweight Tom Nolan headlines a UFC card for the first time when he takes on former title challenger Renato Moicano at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas on Saturday night, US time.
The five-round bout tops UFC Fight Night: Moicano vs Nolan. The main card starts at 8pm US Eastern time on Saturday 31 October, which is 11am AEDT on Sunday 1 November, with prelims from 8am AEDT.
The fight was made in September after an injury to Brian Ortega forced his bout with Moicano off UFC 331, the UFC announced. Nolan is ranked No.11 in the lightweight division.
Five straight wins for Nolan
The 26-year-old has won five fights in a row since losing his UFC debut, according to UFC.com. His latest was a unanimous decision over Farès Ziam, the biggest win of his career, and the run also includes first-round finishes of Charlie Campbell and Victor Martinez.
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Move to City Kickboxing
Nolan moved from Australia to Auckland to train at Eugene Bareman’s City Kickboxing gym for this camp, he told MMA Junkie.
“Yeah, it’s the best camp I’ve ever had by a mile,” Nolan said. “It’s unreal, dude. I’m so stoked that the timing of this worked out to be that it has because it’s the biggest gym in this part of the world for us.”
A big step up
Moicano is ranked inside the lightweight top 10 and is coming off a second-round submission of Chris Duncan in April. He has also beaten Benoît Saint Denis and Jalin Turner over the past two years, with losses to Islam Makhachev and Beneil Dariush.
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UFC.com described the fight as Nolan’s toughest test so far and his first five-round fight, and a chance to show he is ready for the division’s elite.
Randy Brown meets Jacobe Smith in the co-main event, and the card is streamed on Paramount+ in the United States.
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