Lightweights
Tom Nolan (7-1, 1-1 UFC) vs. Alex Reyes (13-4, 0-2 UFC)UFC 305: Du Plessis vs. Adesanya Saturday at 10 ET on ESPN+. Order Now!
Nolan remains an interesting prospect, even if Australia’s “Big Train” might not take the lightweight division by storm as quickly as some had hoped. Massive and aggressive, Nolan had one of the most electric performances on the 2023 edition of Dana White’s Contender Series—especially given his youth—but that momentum was suddenly dashed in his UFC debut, which saw him lose a quick and violent firefight against Nikolas Motta. Nolan rebounded with a first-round knockout of Victor Martinez in May, but the same general concern remains. Nolan is a violent force who should be able to cause a lot of damage, but his lack of defense is going to leave him open for opponents to land some brutal counters in return. That doesn’t seem like a concern against Reyes, whose UFC career looks to be mostly about his impressive level of perseverance. Reyes made his UFC debut on extremely late notice, stepping in during fight week to quickly get knocked out by Mike Perry in 2017, then fell completely off the radar. As it turns out, Reyes was completely ravaged by a life-threatening spinal infection but slowly made his way back to health and miraculously got back into fighting shape, making his return six years to the day of his UFC debut in September against Charlie Campbell. Reyes was a solid enough prospect back in 2017, using a neutralizing striking game to set up his wrestling and grappling, and while some of those ideas were apparent against Campbell, he was unable to either scare him off or survive his offense before getting knocked out in the first round. It’s hard to see things going much differently here. The pick is Nolan via first-round knockout.
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