Eric Nolan has stepped up on short notice a few times for the UFC, notably his UFC debut was at 185 against Baisangur Susurkaev, then he flew to the other side of the world this past June. This fight feels like a “thank you” from the UFC. Like “hey we appreciate you stepping up, we know we threw you in there against a couple of freaks, here’s an old dude”. But I don’t if this fight is as straight forward as it looks on paper. Court McGee is old, slow and never was an athlete, but he is durable, savvy, and can grind. If he’s able to get Nolan to the cage and take away the speed and youth, he can grind out a boring win. I am going to side with Nolan here though because, the theme of this card is young vs old and all these old guys are looking for takedowns in an era that doesn’t care about them. Nolan will be the much better striker and even a few minutes on his back shouldn’t screw that up.

Court McGee

Court McGee is a battle tested veteran who has been around forever. He’s an old school guy, he’s incredibly tough, pretty durable, has solid striking, solid grappling and never quits. He’s good everywhere, great nowhere. He has become a bit of a grappler these past few years but the takedowns didn’t work for him in his last fight where he went 0-6 against Michael Chiesa.

Eric Nolan

Eric Nolan is a well rounded guy who can strike and grapple. He does a good job pressing forward with jabs and high kicks while maintaining defense. He can be low volume at times and ball up when offense comes his way, but he has big power and is very composed. His takedown defense is listed as a low 44% but those numbers are a bit skewed because he was taken down 17 times in his last fight.