Eric Nolan details short-notice UFC fight week with Nolan King
Eric Nolan details short-notice UFC fight week with MMA Junkie’s Nolan King
As Eric Nolan stood near the door, he kept his eyes on the action inside the bar, hoping no fights would break out. But occasionally, he’d glance up at the television, where all he wanted to see was a good fight.
It was Saturday, which meant occasional check-ins on the UFC action would make the night working as a bouncer at D’Jais in Belmar, N.J., go a little faster.
On this particular night, Nolan intermittently watched a night of action topped off by Anthony Hernandez’s submission of Roman Dolidze. Little did he know, exactly one week later, he’d be stepping into that cage for a fight of his own.
“Every time I watch them, I’m like, ‘Damn, it’s Dana White. It’s Joe Rogan. It’s Bruce Buffer. One day, this is going to be me,'” Nolan told MMA Junkie after the fight. “Then, three days later, I get a phone call like, ‘Hey, you’re going to be fighting at UFC 319 in Chicago.'”
The spontaneity of the signing was unusually impromptu. Nolan got the call Wednesday, the morning after the season debut of Dana White’s Contender Series. The UFC wanted to fully put its weight behind contract winner Baysangur Susurkaev and book him for his second fight in four days. Nolan (8-4 MMA, 0-1 UFC) was offered the slot opposite the Khamzat Chimaev training partner.
Nolan quickly accepted the fight, despite it being up a weight class, and immediately boarded the rollercoaster of an all-time hectic week.
“I got the call Wednesday around 12 o’clock,” Nolan said. “1 o’clock, I got the fight. It was official.”
From that moment until he stepped inside the cage at United Center, it was go-go-go.
“I’m flying out Wednesday night and I had to do some medical stuff in Jersey,” Nolan said. “So I had to go get an MRI and that’s super hard to find a place to do that last minute. I got that done, had like 10 minutes to pack my bags and then I was in a car, on my way to the airport. My flight got delayed, of course. I landed at like 2 o’clock in the morning, I’d like to say. Then, the airport lost my bag. So it wasn’t going to arrive until 6 a.m. the next morning. So I didn’t have my bag. So I was like, ‘Well, this is a great start.’ I was doing media stuff. I didn’t get to go to bed until 2:30-3:00 in the morning.
“The next day, I had to wake up at 7:30, drive to Indiana to do an eye exam. It was a lot. It was a lot. But it was really cool. It was a really cool experience being there. I was mentally checked into the fight as soon as I got that, ‘Hey, you’re fighting this kid.’ I did a quick film study and I was like, ‘All right, watch the kicks, get in this kid’s face, and just make it a fight.'”
Nolan didn’t back down mentally or emotionally from the overnight sensation Susurkaev (10-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC), as the promotion fired on all cylinders. Their bout was moved to the featured prelim slot, and before he knew it, Nolan was sitting at a raucous pre-fight news conference where he coldly clapped back to a Susurkaev insult by calling him Chimaev’s “butt buddy.”
“It was everything I expected it to be and a lot more so, in a good way,” Nolan said. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is frickin’ awesome.’ I’m happy he was the way he was at the press conference. From the moment I arrived there, I knew I had a game opponent. I love that sh*t. He wanted to talk a little sh*t. I mean, I’m from Jersey. We can talk sh*t over here. I enjoyed that sh*t.”
Victory in defeat
Nolan didn’t win on fight night. He was submitted in Round 2. But the result does not tell the full story.
In Round 1, Nolan was visibly unfazed by the hulking Russian, who smiled confidently at him. Susurkaev’s grin was less visible in the final sequence of the round when Nolan put him on roller skates with a hard counter combination. Nolan had the fight world on the edge of its seats.
Susurkaev showed in Round 2, however, his ability to battle back from unexpected adversity. He took a wobbled Nolan down and eventually got a rear-naked choke submission.
“I thought I was going to go in there and knock him out,” Nolan said. “I truly believed it. His style is tailor-made for me to have a striking battle with. I knew when you pressed forward on him and you started throwing punches on him, he does this coverup. I got a little too excited sometimes and I didn’t really set up a lot of my strikes. I didn’t take advantage of when he actually covered up. I rocked him at the end of the first round. After that, especially after the bell rang, I knew I had him hurt. I was like, ‘This second round, I’m putting him out.’ But he adapted. He started shooting.”
Nolan was disappointed with the end result. While a loss will always sting, turning on his phone and seeing the positive messages from a frequently negative international fight community online put things in perspective.
“The support was actually incredible,” Nolan said. “It’s nothing like I’ve ever had before in my life, the amount of positive messages. I expected a lot of sh*t talkers, but I really couldn’t find any. I was looking for the sh*t talkers. I wanted a good laugh. I like that stuff. But nope. The support was incredible. Obviously, at the time, I was disappointed with the result, so I just kind of put my phone down and tried to answer my friends and family first. But dude, it was a crazy experience.”
What’s next?
Viewers at home weren’t the only fans Nolan gained on fight night. He now has a supporter in UFC CEO Dana White.
“I also love Nolan,” Dana White said as he sat at the post-fight news conference. I went up there and told him after the fight, ‘Go home. Relax. Spend some time with your family and enjoy yourself. You’re not going anywhere.’ We’re going to sign him to a deal.”
Nolan was dehabilitated by Susurkaev’s leg kicks in the moments leading up to the finishing sequence, but said he suffered no major injuries.
He isn’t sure where or vs. who, but Nolan wants to step in the cage at least one more time in 2025. Next time it’ll be at his natural weight class of welterweight, a division he wrecked shop in under the CFFC banner. Nolan notched six finishes in eight pro victories.
“I plan on being a very active UFC fighter,” Nolan said. “I was pretty active as a regional scene fighter. It was camp, camp, camp, camp, camp. I learned a little bit. I get better every fight I have. If you watch my first fight to my last fight in CFFC, I’ve been with them since I started my pro career, I get better every single time.”
Regardless of what opportunity presents itself next, Nolan is dead-set on representing and promoting the United States Marines, who he proudly served.
USMC representation forever
Nolan’s delve into MMA was largely due to the winding road his military service took him down. When stationed in Quantico, Va., Nolan made a very impulsive (and admittedly alcohol-boosted) decision to make a phone call to a local promoter one night. The rest was history.
“Right after high school, I joined the Marine Corps,” Nolan said. “Simply put, on the weekends down at the base in Camp Lejeune, on Saturdays, for big UFC cards, a bunch of Marines go to the Buffalo Wild Wings or whatever bar they can get into to watch the fights. I remember watching the fights, and I’m like, ‘I can do that sh*t.’ This is what I really wanted to do. Obviously, my Marine Corps career, I put first. I was an infantry Marine, so I took that very seriously. I had a bunch of great experiences and memories in the Marine Corps. I loved every single second of it.
“… I hit up a promoter one day. I had a couple beers before I hit him up. I was like, ‘Yo, I’m 185 pounds. This is my weight. I’ll fight anybody. I don’t care.’ All I was doing was hitting a heavy bag, running, swimming, and rolling around with Marines.’ I took the fight, won the fight, and the rest is history.”
To see all those people first-hand, I actually couldn’t process it because I was so locked in for the fight. I knew I had to prove myself. So I didn’t really get to enjoy like, ‘Holy sh*t, it’s f*cking Dana White. Holy sh*t, it’s Bruce Buffer and Joe Rogan.’ I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I probably should’ve. But that’s just my mentality. I’m there for business. But it was really cool to hear him say that he wanted to keep me and I’m here to stay.”
“No, listen, he proved himself on Contender Series. That’s the benefit of fighting on Contender Series. You get a lot more people to know about you and who are excited about your fight. I was the new guy. I’ve been the new guy before. You’ve got to earn that right to get treated the way he got treated. It didn’t bother me at all. I know I’ve got a really cool story, and I know when people look up, ‘Hey, who is this kid fighting,’ and they look a little more into me, they’re going to be like, ‘All right, he actually has a pretty cool story himself.'”
While his onboarding into the UFC may mean his days bouncing at his beloved D’Jais are waning, his identity as a Marine will be lifelong.
“Before I was a fighter, I was a United States Marine,” Nolan said. “It’s something I’m very proud about and something I tried to tell everybody. It doesn’t matter what branch of service you’re in – Marines, Navy, Army, Airforce. I know what it’s like to be active duty and be away from home and thinking about your future like, ‘What are you going to do?’ I’ve been there. If you follow your dreams, don’t let anybody tell you it’s not attainable or it’s not possible. Because look, I did it.”
