UFC Vegas 123 preview: Nolan has massive opportunity vs. Moicano

The Octagon heads back to Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, for UFC Vegas 123: Nolan vs. Moicano.

With 12 fights on the card, plenty of storylines are worth watching, so let’s dig in.

Tom Nolan looks to break into the lightweight top-10

The five-round main event of UFC Vegas 123 offers a massive opportunity for 26-year-old Aussie Tom Nolan, who faces 37-year-old Brazilian fan favourite Renato Moicano.

Moicano, who has been in the UFC since 2014, is ranked No. 8 in the Meta UFC Rankings. He is coming off an upset submission win over Chris Duncan that showed he still has plenty left in the tank despite having been written off several times earlier in his MMA career.

As for Nolan, he is the No. 12-ranked lightweight in the Meta UFC Rankings. After losing his promotional debut in 2024, Nolan reeled off six straight wins to earn his first UFC main event spot against Moicano and a chance to break into the top-10 rankings at 155 pounds.

Moicano is an awesome fighter, but given his age and declining durability, don’t be surprised if this is Nolan’s big coming-out party, though the veteran will do everything he can to stop him.

Jacobe Smith gets a big step pp in competition

One of the UFC's top up-and-coming welterweight fighters gets a massive step up in competition when Jacobe Smith takes on veteran Randy Brown in the co-main event.

Smith is 13-0, including a 4-0 UFC record with four stoppage wins since he made his promotional debut last year. But Smith has struggled to get opponents to sign on the dotted line to fight him because of how dangerous he is, yet he’s not ranked in the top 15.

Brown has been in the UFC since 2016 and has a 14-8 record in the organization, with many fights against some of the best welterweights in the sport. But now, at 36 and after losing three of his last four fights, Brown seems to have finally hit the decline phase of his career.

That’s why Smith may have caught Brown at the right time, and why he’s the favourite to win here, despite having far less UFC experience and having fought lesser competition than Brown.

The battle of the Santoses

We have a rare UFC fight featuring two fighters with the same last name when Yana Santos takes on Luana Santos in a bout between two of the top-10 ranked women’s bantamweights.

Both Santoses have won their last three fights, so the winner of this bout will be closing in on securing a title shot in one of the UFC’s shallowest weight classes.

With Luana Santos 11 years younger than Yana Santos, she has to be the favourite here, but the way the two women match up should lead to a very competitive bout.

Top prospect Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani returns

One of the top UFC welterweight prospects returns to the Octagon as Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani goes up against the undefeated Farman Hasanov in the opening main-card bout.

Lebosnoyani has won both of his UFC fights in 2026 — over veterans Phil Rowe and Seokhyeon Ko — and will now face a fighter in Hasanov who has never tasted defeat before.

Hasanov won his UFC debut over Eric Nolan, taking him down 17 times, but that might not be so easy to do here against a solid grappler like Lebosnoyani.

Julian Erosa’s retirement fight

Longtime UFC featherweight Julian Erosa has already revealed that his preliminary-card bout against JeongYeong Lee will be his retirement from MMA after 45 career bouts.

Erosa has had three separate stints in the UFC, which shows just how much drive he’s had over the years to succeed at the sport's highest level, since many fighters who get cut from the UFC never return. Erosa, meanwhile, returned to the organization twice.

Unfortunately for Erosa, he is coming off two beatdown losses and, overall, has been knocked out eight times in his MMA career, which is a high number and likely one of the reasons why he is stepping away from the game, as he doesn’t want to take any more damage.

Erosa’s opponent, Lee, is just 2-2 in the UFC and is coming off two straight losses as well, but with him being six years younger and having had only 14 MMA fights, he has taken far less attrition than Erosa has, and that’s why Lee is favoured to defeat Erosa in his retirement bout.

Two fighters make their UFC debuts

On the preliminary card, two fighters are making their official UFC debuts.

In the middleweight division, Joe Kropschot debuts just two months after winning a UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series. Kropschot defeated Jon Kunneman in an upset on DWCS. Now, Kropschot will look to extend his win streak to six straight fights against fellow DWCS alum Nick Klein in what should be a hard-fought bout between two blue-collar fighters.

As well, in the opening preliminary-card bout, former Oktagon MMA champion Lucia Szabova makes her UFC debut against Tainara Lisboa. Szabova is a former two-division champion in Oktagon MMA, one of Europe’s top fighting organizations, and will look to extend her undefeated mark to 11-0 with a big win over Lisboa in a women’s flyweight bout.