UFC Vegas 123: Moicano and Nolan Make Weight for the Halloween Main Event

Halloween night at the APEX is a fitting setting for this one, because the main event is a little bit haunted. Renato Moicano was supposed to spend 2026 settling things with Brian Ortega. Instead, for the second time this year, Ortega is out — and Moicano closes October across the cage from a 26-year-old Australian who called him a hero this week and got told, in essence, to save the compliments and bring a fight.

Friday's weigh-ins removed the last obstacle. According to Sherdog's official results, Moicano stepped on the scale at exactly 156 pounds and Nolan at 155.5, setting the five-round lightweight headliner. Eleven of the twelve bouts came in clean. The card is set — and it is a better card than the one the UFC originally tried to sell.

A main event built out of somebody else's injury

The backstory matters here. Moicano and Ortega were first booked for March, and Ortega withdrew hurt. They were rebooked for UFC 331 in September in Los Angeles, and, as MMA Junkie reported at the time, Ortega pulled out again days before the event with an injury — an Instagram story posted by the rapper Lecrae showed what appeared to be significant damage around Ortega's left eye, though the promotion never specified the injury.

Nolan told the UFC's preview coverage that he actually accepted the Ortega replacement fight on a week's notice for that September date. It didn't happen then — Moicano's side wanted more time — so the fight was rebuilt for Halloween. At this week's media day, Nolan was almost cheerful about the whole chain of events. "It's manifestation," he said, per MMA Mania's media day report. "I called him out. The Ortega fight got put together, I was like, 'Oh, that sucks.' But I was actually conscious of the fact that I thought Ortega would probably pull out."

Renato Moicano, in a still from his own “Show Me The Money” channel. (Photo: Show Me The Money / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0)

Moicano, characteristically, was having none of the warmth. Nolan had called him "a legend and a hero of mine growing up." Moicano's reply, via MMA Mania: he doesn't want compliments — he wants money. He also argued, with a straight face and some logic, that Nolan is the more dangerous assignment anyway: "I believe everybody can agree with that that Tom Nolan is more dangerous than Ortega. Ortega is a bigger name, but I think beating Tom Nolan would do better for my record and for my resume."

Veteran's craft against a five-fight run

The numbers frame a classic crossroads fight. Moicano (21-7-1) is 37, fighting his 30th professional bout, and coming off a second-round rear-naked choke win over Chris Duncan on April 4 — a dominant submission that Sherdog noted was his first victory since 2024. He is a former title challenger with a deep, nasty grappling game and a decade of scar tissue against elite lightweights.

Nolan (11-1) is the opposite profile: 26 years old, 6-foot-3 — four inches taller than Moicano — and unbeaten since he dropped his UFC debut to Nikolas Motta in January 2024. He has won five straight since, most recently a unanimous decision over Fares Ziam on June 6, which Sherdog called the biggest victory of his career to date. This is his first UFC main event and his first scheduled five-round fight. The bookmakers, per MMA Mania's preview, have it essentially a pick'em — which tells you the market respects the streak as much as the résumé.

The honest read: Moicano has made a career out of being the worst night of a rising fighter's year, and Nolan has never been in deep water with anyone remotely this experienced. If Nolan's length and youth keep it standing early, the APEX could watch a changing of the guard. If Moicano gets it to the mat the way he did against Duncan, the kid learns why veterans charge tuition.

The one miss, and the rest of the weigh-ins

Friday's only failure came on the prelims. Francis Marshall weighed 148 pounds for his featherweight bout with Dakota Hope — two pounds over the non-title limit — according to Sherdog, BJPenn.com and MMA News, which all reported the same results sheet. The bout proceeds at catchweight and Marshall forfeits 20 percent of his purse. It's a rough look made rougher by context: Hope took this fight on less than a month's notice, replacing Gaston Bolanos, who withdrew with an eye injury — and Hope made weight at 145.5.

The main card weigh-in results, per Sherdog: Moicano 156 vs. Nolan 155.5; Randy Brown 170.5 vs. Jacobe Smith 170.5; Cody Durden 126 vs. Ode Osbourne 126; Yana Santos 135.5 vs. Luana Santos 136; and Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani 170.5 vs. Farman Hasanov 171.

Co-main and prelims worth your evening

The co-main event is the card's sneaky headline act. Jacobe Smith is 13-0 and stepping into the biggest spot of his career on short notice, replacing the injured Carlos Leal against Randy Brown (20-8), a veteran who has made a habit of ruining prospects' nights. Previously told Smith's story when the booking landed — undefeated Jacobe Smith steps up on short notice — and tonight is where that story gets graded.

Down the card, two prelim storylines stand out. Rodrigo Sezinando fights for the first time since the TUF 33 final in September 2025, where, as MMA Sucka reported this week, a loss to Daniil Donchenko left him with an orbital bone fractured in three places. He and his team decided against surgery and let it heal naturally — a layoff of more than a year. He meets Theodor Berggren, who is himself coming off a TKO loss to Donchenko. And the card opens with Tainara Lisboa dropping to flyweight after back-to-back losses at bantamweight, per MiddleEasy's report of her Ag Fight interview, against unbeaten newcomer Lucia Szabova, whose UFC profile lists a 12-0 record. The remaining prelims: Julian Erosa vs. Jeong Yeong Lee, Zachary Reese vs. Mickey Gall, Nick Klein vs. Joseph Kropschot, and Piera Rodriguez vs. Talita Alencar.

Meanwhile, in Riyadh

The fight day starts hours before the APEX doors open. Canelo Alvarez challenges WBC super middleweight champion Christian Mbilli this afternoon in Riyadh on DAZN pay-per-view, with ringwalks at approximately 1:30 p.m. PT — Previously's full preview is here: Canelo comes back for his belt. The early prelims are already in the books: according to FightMag's live results and DAZN's live blog, Brayan Leon beat Hector Aguirre by unanimous decision (77-75, 78-74, 78-74) and Carlos Emilio Rojo stopped Flavius Biea at 1:38 of the fourth round.

By the time the APEX main card starts at 5 p.m. PT, boxing will have had its say. Then it's Moicano and Nolan, five rounds, and a simple question: does the veteran collect one more paycheck off a prospect's ambition — his word, money — or does the Big Train leave Halloween with a top-ten scalp? Either ending is a story. That's more than the Ortega version of this fight ever managed to give us.

Fighter pages: Renato Moicano · Tom Nolan · More coverage in the Previously fight hub