Toowoomba MMA star Tom ‘Big Train’ Nolan to fight in Las Vegas for the first time

Toowoomba MMA star Tom ‘Big Train’ Nolan’s first fight in Las Vegas will be beamed around the world. See where you can watch it live this week.

Toowoomba’s MMA star Tom “Big Train” Nolan will this week take another giant leap toward his dream of fighting in the UFC when he steps into the ring in Las Vegas.

The 23-year-old will on Wednesday morning (Toowoomba time) take on the highly experienced Austrian fighter Bogdan Grad in the lightweight division of Dana White’s Contender Series Seven.

Grad has a professional fight record of 11 wins with just one loss.

Should he be victorious, Nolan could be offered that UFC contract through the Dana White organisation, his dream since taking on the sport as a teenager.

Toowoomba's Tom "Big Train" Nolan does the business during a bout on the Gold Coast.

In his teenage years Nolan was a promising rugby league player and a member of the Junior Clydesdales and he had initially taken up MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) training simply to keep fit during the off-season.

However, he soon came to love the brutal contact of MMA and has since gone on to have a professional record of five wins with no losses.

Nolan arrived in Las Vegas more than a week ago and his training regime is so strict he could not be contacted, not even by his older brother Luke who is in Las Vegas for the fight.

Toowoomba MMA fighter Tom Nolan wins a points decision against Trevor Sinclair at Carara Stadium on the Gold Coast.

“Tom has cut weight easily and has trained the roof off the MGM Grand,” Luke Nolan told The Chronicle from Las Vegas.

“He has been training at the UFC Performance Institute which has the best resources in the world for athletes.

“He is going in against a very experienced fighter but over here Tom is short favourite to win.”

The Dana White’s Contender Series Seven program will be beamed worldwide via the television sports channel ESPN and the City Golf Club will have the fights screened in the bar from 9am Wednesday.