UFC lightweight Renato Moicano issued a statement following his third-round TKO loss against Tom Nolan at UFC Vegas 123.

Moicano was dominating the fight with ground control, as he had Nolan’s back for most of the first two rounds. But late in the second round, referee “Big” Dan Miragliotta stood Moicano and Nolan up despite the Brazilian having back mount, a body triangle, and an arm around Nolan’s neck.

The Aussie then dropped Moicano with a punch to steal the round back, and then in the third round, finished off Moicano with strikes in what many are calling a tainted win due to the referee taking a dominant position away from the fighter.

Renato Moicano Reacts to UFC Vegas 123 Loss

Taking to his social media immediately after UFC Vegas 123, Moicano shared a brief statement on the fight, congratulating his opponent on his victory and taking the high road on the controversial standup by blaming himself for the loss.

“Congrats tom Nolan you’re a beast!” Moicano wrote on his X.

“https://twitter.com/moicanoufc/status/2116727680775397756

“I want to thank the fans! I had a terrible performance, I was well trained, I managed to get the back control but I couldn’t do any damage, he was defending well! Congrats to the guy who follows!” Moicano also wrote.

Tough Break for Renato Moicano

It’s possible that, had the second round ended, Nolan would have beaten Moicano cleanly in the third round anyway, but now we’ll never know, because this is a tainted win.

It’s not Nolan’s fault that the referee listened to the crowd booing the lack of striking and caused the stand-up, but it 100% changed the trajectory of this fight.

Had the fight not gotten stood up when it did, there’s no guarantee that Nolan would have dropped Moicano with strikes to end the second round, which obviously left Moicano badly hurt entering the third round, where he was finished.

Moicano is 37 years old, so every fight is so critical at this point in his UFC career, and unfortunately for him, he ran into a really bad referee on Saturday night who didn’t allow him a fair fight.