Tom Nolan revealed that his victory over Victor Martinez at UFC Fight Night 241 was a huge one.
Nolan earned a UFC contract with a six-fight win streak after a knockout victory over Bogan Grado on Dana White’s Contender Series last year. The then-undefeated prospect was a heavy favorite heading into his UFC debut against Nicolas Motta in February of this year. However, “Big Train” suffered his first career loss with a first-round TKO.
Nolan admitted that he let some of the hype around him go to his head in the lead-up to his UFC debut and felt pressure to quickly attack his opponent in an overwhelming manner.
At the post-game media scrum, Coach Nolan said, “It was a different pressure than last time.” “The pressure last time was, ‘Oh, you have to finish this guy in 10 seconds, you’re so much better, so much better.’ And to be honest, I’ve never been dropped, I’ve never been knocked out. I’ve never really been injured, never been cut, nothing. So, on my own account, I bought into the hype a little bit. I went in there thinking, “I should be able to do this.” And I learned a valuable lesson. ”
On Saturday night, Nolan earned a TKO victory over Martinez, finishing off his opponent with a knee to the body and follow-up punches. After a failed UFC debut, things have changed dramatically for Nolan as he enters his second year in the promotion. Nolan was again the heavy betting favorite, but the Australian was more concerned about protecting his job this time. Although he expected a performance bonus, Nolan, who only has show money left for his UFC debut, revealed that if he doesn’t win against Martinez, he plans to return to his regular job.
“Playing under pressure was different.” [this time],” he said. “I didn’t really care about the odds or what people thought or anything like that. This time everyone was saying the same thing: ‘Oh, it’s easy to beat this guy, a first-round knockout. It’s easy, it’s easy, it’s easy.” I watch his matches and he knocks people out all the time. He has eight knockouts. It won’t be an easy battle. So the pressure was even more for me. I’m still young, so I only have a little money. I was hoping that I would get a bonus because I won last time, but instead I lost, so I don’t have any money now. Now I have to live with it until the next battle. So if I lose money tonight, I’ll be working somewhere else and living a life I wasn’t meant to live. So this time the pressure was really internal, but I was able to handle it well. ”
