Renato Moicano was stopped by Tom Nolan in the main event of UFC Vegas 123, which went down Saturday night at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas, but that happened after a highly controversial call by referee Dan Miragliotta.
Moicano had Nolan’s back in round two but Miragliotta called for a reset, standing them up, and Nolan rocked Moicano with a knee moments later. The TKO stoppage came in the following round. Moicano posted a video on his Youtube channel hours later send a message to his fans and first
react to what unfolded inside the octagon on Oct. 31.
“All respect to Tom Nolan, an excellent guy,” Moicano said. “I thought I was going to beat him because I had watched [his] videos. I thought I would take his back very easily, and I thought I would be making another video today, a celebration video. … We make plans, we want things to happen, but things don’t always happen the way we want them to. What am I going to do? Get angry at the world? Curse out the referee? Start a war?”
“First of all, I want to congratulate Tom Nolan and say that he is not responsible for the reset in any way,” he added. “He went out there and did his job. He was far superior to me on the feet. I think I’m better than him on the ground, but I also wasn’t able to effectively execute my attacks. I couldn’t get the job done.”
And even though Moicano called the 12-1 Australian lightweight “an excellent guy,” he followed it up by saying “I still think he’s bad” as a top-level fighter in the most Moicano way.
“I lost to a guy who’s bad,” Moicano said. “I still think he’s bad. He’s good on the feet. But despite being good on the feet, he has a lot of weaknesses, especially in wrestling. But what can I do about it? It’s actually a difficult situation. So instead of thinking about what’s next, I’m going to take a step back and thank God for my life, thank God for my family, thank God for the opportunity to have fought today and to have tried again.
“I wish I were making a video here celebrating a win because I’m competitive. I don’t want to lose at anything, so it’s fucking tough to go out there and lose to a young kid I thought I was going to beat. I was absolutely convinced I was going to take him down and submit him in the first round. Fuck! He trained his ass off and put up an excellent defense. What can we do? Thank him, congratulate him, get better for next time, and be grateful to this audience. Learn this, brother. Nothing is set in stone.”
Moicano has two fights left in his current deal with the UFC, and said prior to the fight he was hoping to fight out of his contract and test free agency. The setback won’t lead the 37-year-old to an early retirement, though.
“I’m not going to stop, I’m not going to get discouraged, and I’m not going to let anyone bring my head down,” Moicano said. “It’s always a risk, brother. When you step into an MMA fight, there’s no such thing as an easy fight. The matchup may be favorable, like Tom Nolan’s was, but at every moment I knew a knee could come. I saw him training and knew a kick could come, but I took the risk, I tried, and unfortunately, I failed. And this is the side of life nobody shows. Life is made up much more of mistakes than successes, so don’t give up.
“Life goes on. There will be other fights. I will get better. The whole point of this video is to tell you one thing: it’s either win or improve. I have a lot to improve on. One thing I need to work on, for example, is this: when I got into the jiu-jitsu exchange, took him down, and got his back, I had never seen anyone defend that way before. So I need to improve that. I need to improve my striking. I need to improve everything. Everything. So look at the bright side, look at the areas where you can improve in every aspect of your life, and I will do the same. Be grateful for the things that happened, because if you don’t improve, they will happen again.
“When we win, we think we’re great. We think we’re really good. That’s human nature. And when you lose, you tend to think you’re a piece of shit. ‘Oh, I’m a piece of shit, I’m no good at anything.’ No, no. I’m here to tell you something: you’re not as good as you think you are when you win, and you’re not as bad as you think you are when you lose. We tend to put too much value on the moment. I won, I’m the man. I lost, I’m a piece of shit. No, I’m still the same person.
“I honor my commitments, I provide for my family. I have two more kids on the way, so I’ll have four wonderful children with the wife I love, a house I built through the sweat of my labor, a gym, and friends I’ve made over the years. So this loss doesn’t define me, just like a win doesn’t define you, you understand? You have to learn to keep your professional life separate from everything else. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even be able to make this video.”
