Renowned MMA coach Ray Longo has strongly criticized referee Dan Miragliotta for a controversial decision made during the UFC Fight Night 292 main event involving Tom Nolan and Renato Moicano at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas.
The Controversial Stand-Up and Finish
During the second round of the bout, Moicano secured control of Nolan on the ground by taking his back with a body triangle and pursuing a rear-naked choke. In a surprising move, Miragliotta chose to stand the fighters back up.
Shortly after the reset, Nolan landed heavy punches that rocked Moicano just before the end of the round. That momentum carried into the third round, where Nolan secured a TKO victory at the 1:28 mark.
Speaking on the “Anik & Florian Podcast,” as reported by sports.yahoo.com, Longo voiced deep frustration over the sequence. “I’ve just never, ever seen anything like that in my life,” Longo said. “Then you start going down rabbit holes: Was it him? Was he told to do it? The fact that (the UFC) rewarded that guy with a bonus of the night kind of tells me they wanted that. I kind of feel bad for Tom Nolan. I liked him going in; I don’t even know if I like him coming out, which is bad. I think he handled it really bad on the mic afterwards. You got gifted something. You couldn’t get out. Your answer was to elbow the thigh. Maybe eventually it would’ve worked, but there were things happening down there.”
Longo added, “Listen, this is why you have to really talk to big Dan. He’s a martial artist. He’s done jiu-jitsu. What in the f*ck were you thinking?”
Questioning External Influence and Coaching Impact
Longo also questioned whether outside pressures from the organization influenced the veteran referee’s actions, noting the promotion’s well-known preference for finishes and exciting stand-up battles.
“The UFC has been very outspoken. They want knockouts,” Longo stated. “That’s what they pride themselves on, the exciting fights. This is getting crazy. … I want to know if there was anything from the top that led him to do that. I don’t think he’s deciding to do that on his own. That’s how bad it was. I just can’t see it.”
Longo explained that this corporate preference directly alters how he prepares athletes, especially fighters aiming to enter the promotion through Dana White’s Contender Series.
“We know that the UFC, when you hold a guy against the cage, they don’t even let you on the Contender Series,” Longo said. “I tell my guys – you’re saying affecting coaching – for the guys that go on the Contender Series, ‘You know what they’re looking for. If you don’t do it, I don’t want to hear any complaining.’ Now, is that right? I don’t want to coach like that. It’s not right to me. I want to be an MMA coach and come up with a strategy to get a win, but you can’t do that anymore. If you don’t fight a certain fight, you’re not getting in that organization. … They don’t want the grappling. They don’t like it.”
