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.
UFC News & Features
