UFC

• Brett OkamotoAug 27, 2025, 08:00 AM ET

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  Brett Okamoto has reported on mixed martial arts and boxing at ESPN since 2010. He has covered all of the biggest events in combat sports during that time, including in-depth interviews and features with names such as Dana White, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and Georges St-Pierre. He was also a producer on the 30 for 30 film: “Chuck and Tito,” which looked back at the careers and rivalry of Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. He lives in Las Vegas, and is an avid, below-average golfer in his spare time.

The only time Baisangur Susurkaev didn’t have a smile on his face two weeks ago was for a few moments on a Tuesday night in Las Vegas — when his team tried to tell him he wasn’t allowed to eat a steak.

Susurkaev had just scored a first-round knockout on “Dana White’s Contender Series” and earned a UFC contract. Naturally, he was in the mood to celebrate, so he went straight from the UFC Apex to Herbs & Rye steakhouse. But when the waiter came to take Susurkaev’s order, his team reminded him the UFC was working furiously to book him a fight at UFC 319 in Chicago on Saturday — four days later.

“I told him he should probably order salmon,” Susurkaev’s manager, Jamie Gall, told ESPN this week. “If the UFC did get him a fight, he would have to make weight on Friday. He looked so sad that I told the waiter, ‘OK, give him a steak, but no salt, no butter, don’t even use oil. Just cooked meat.'”

But Gall still felt bad. The 24-year-old from Chechnya in Russia, who had been working as a food delivery driver less than a month before, had just achieved his dream of signing with the UFC, and all he wanted was a proper steak.

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Gall phoned her business partner, Dave Martin, who had been in contact with the UFC all night about a potential opening on the UFC 319 card, and asked for an update. The UFC hadn’t responded to his recent messages, Martin told Gall, and it was getting late.

“Let him eat,” Martin conceded.

Gall found the waiter and ordered it all — the butter, the salt. Throw in an order of fries.

But when the team returned to the Palace Station hotel after the meal, Martin called back. The UFC had a fight for Susurkaev in Chicago.

On the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 12, Susurkaev was a struggling fighter from Chechnya living and training in South Florida who had only fought twice in the past three years. Four days later, he walked to the Octagon in front of a sold-out United Center crowd and submitted his opponent in the second round to become the first person to win a “Contender Series” bout and a UFC debut in the same week. “I haven’t been this excited about a guy in a very long time,” UFC CEO Dana White declared after Susurkaev’s “DWCS” win.

Susurkaev’s run will go down as one of the single greatest weeks in UFC history. Here are the behind-the-scenes details that show how Susurkaev came to this moment, and contextualize how impressive it is.

Tuesday, Aug. 5

Susurkaev has nearly given up on MMA multiple times over the past two years.

He took a risk and moved to the U.S. from Chechnya in 2023, after several of his MMA sponsors dropped out of the business because of economic changes resulting from the Russia-Ukraine War.

“When the war started, there was less money being invested into fighters,” Susurkaev told ESPN. “So, for me it was, ‘Am I going to stay and find work or am I going to try?’ It was my best friend who told me I had to do it. After hearing his words, I knew I had to try.”

Tamerlan Susurkaev, middle, moved to the United States from Chechnya to train with and coach his younger brother, Baisangur, right. At left is Khamzat Chimaev. MAG Agency

Susurkaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, a former professional fighter, traveled to the U.S. and started training at Kill Cliff MMA. Tamerlan initially wasn’t supposed to go to the U.S. but decided he had to be in his brother’s corner as his coach, just as he had been in Chechnya.

When the two had enough money, they lived in a hotel across the street from the gym in Deerfield Beach, Florida. When money ran short, they slept in a car in the hotel parking lot or on one of the lounge chairs next to the hotel’s pool.

Susurkaev’s talent was immediately apparent. Kill Cliff is home to some of the best fighters in the world, including former champions Kamaru Usman, Robbie Lawler and Rashad Evans, and Susurkaev blended in just fine on the mats. There were times he would spar with another middleweight at Kill Cliff, return to his hotel, play the UFC video game and recognize the face of a fighter he had just rolled with.

“I don’t watch fights,” Susurkaev said. “So we would go to choose our players [in the video game] and I would say, ‘Who is this? I sparred with him today. Who is this guy?'”

The issue he ran into was a lack of fights. Gall and her partners at MAG Agency struggled to find him opportunities. Between 2024 and the first half of 2025, Susurkaev only fought twice — at Las Vegas promotion Borroka’s inaugural event and Fury FC.

Susurkaev came close to abandoning his dream again because of the lack of work, even packing his bags to leave on several occasions. His team saw it weighing on him.

“He was great in the gym, but you could tell he was struggling in life,” Lawler told ESPN. “He wouldn’t be at practice. I would ask where he was, and you could just tell stuff was weighing on him. I didn’t ask him personally because I didn’t have that relationship with him, but he was never getting fights and I’m sure that wasn’t easy on him.”

His management team had tried and failed to secure him a spot on this year’s season of “Dana White’s Contender Series” until the UFC reached out on Aug. 5 to ask if Susurkaev was available to fill in for a middleweight who had pulled out of an Aug. 12 matchup. The timing was perfect. Susurkaev had just spent the past month in California as a main sparring partner for UFC star and fellow Chechen Khamzat Chimaev, so he was in fighting shape.

Tuesday, Aug. 12

The first week of Season 9 of “DWCS” will go down as one of the worst episodes in the series’ history. The UFC fielded five fights and awarded only two contracts, the fewest of any episode in more than three years.

The bright spot was Susurkaev, who scored a walk-off, front-kick knockout three minutes into the first round.

“My guy,” White said to Susurkaev, as he announced Susurkaev’s contract at the end of the show. “You are an absolute killer. I love everything about you. We’re going to be seeing you [in the UFC] very soon.”

As White spoke, Susurkaev held up four fingers on his right hand, signaling four days until the UFC pay-per-view event in Chicago. He had told Gall before the Tuesday event that he planned to earn a contract and fight on the same card as Chimaev, who was challenging Dricus Du Plessis for the middleweight championship in the main event. He was so adamant about fighting on the card that he refused to sign a Nevada State Athletic Commission document that restricts training and competing for a minimum of seven days after a sanctioned event to medically recover. Eventually, he did sign, and the suspension was waived.

Susurkaev was already scheduled to be in Chicago to cheer on Chimaev, well before any of this. He met Chimaev in Chechnya in 2022 and shared the training room with him that year. They stayed in touch, and when Chimaev decided to hold the final month of his UFC 319 camp in Huntington Beach, California, he invited Susurkaev to join him.

“He is a big motivation for me and everyone in Chechnya,” Susurkaev said. “In Russia, if you fight for the UFC, you’re a superstar. And he has reached an unbelievable level. I saw this with him, and it became my dream.”

The UFC informed Susurkaev that it had booked him a UFC fight the same night he knocked out Murtaza Talha in the first round with a kick to the liver. He verbally agreed to make his UFC debut four days later against an opponent to be determined. He didn’t find out he would be up against fellow newcomer Eric Nolan until Wednesday morning, on his flight to Chicago.

Wednesday, Aug. 13

Susurkaev reunited with his sparring partner, Chimaev, at the UFC 319 fighter hotel in Chicago, where the two Chechens found themselves at the center of attention.

“It was very strange for me,” Susurkaev admitted. “There were cameras every minute, you know? I was ready for everything when it came to fighting, but not being famous. In the hotel, guys wanted pictures with me. It was big, big attention.”

Chimaev invited Susurkaev to his room that evening to offer his congratulations — and his credit card. The UFC had added Susurkaev to its news conference lineup the following day, and Chimaev wanted him to look good.

“He said, ‘Go to the store, and buy everything you want,'” Susurkaev said.

Baisangur Susurkaev wore all new threads and a designer watch for the pre-UFC 319 news conference, courtesy of Khamzat Chimaev. Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC

By the end of the night, Susurkaev had a new $8,000 wardrobe. Chimaev even loaned him a designer watch, as a finishing touch to the news conference ensemble.

“All my life, I’ve never had more than $100, $200 of clothes,” Susurkaev said. “I felt like I was rich walking out with those clothes.”

Saturday, Aug. 16

Despite the indulgent meal on Tuesday night, Susurkaev made weight on Friday morning, and his first walk to the UFC Octagon on Saturday night played out like one extended celebration. He smiled all the way from the tunnel to the Octagon — and continued to smile once the fight started. It was impossible to miss his older brother, Tamerlan, by his side for the walk-in, because he was literally leaping into the air.

Khamzat Chimaev, left, and Baisangur Susurkaev, right, both of Chechnya, sparred together in the lead-up to UFC 319 in Chicago, where Susurkaev won his UFC debut fight and Chimaev won the middleweight championship. Courtesy of MAG Agency

“I couldn’t believe it,” Tamerlan said. “I couldn’t believe that it was real. It felt like we were living in a PlayStation game. It was too much. I couldn’t even take it all in.”

Susurkaev submitted Nolan in the second round to earn the first submission victory of his career. His postfight interview in the Octagon with Joe Rogan aired live on ESPN and has been viewed more than 100,000 times on YouTube. Later that evening, Chimaev dominated Du Plessis to become a UFC champion. It’s hard to say there will ever be a bigger evening for Chechen MMA.

“In my village, it was crazy, crazy,” Susurkaev said. “Like we had won a war or something like this. So many people, meeting in fields, watching in big rooms. It’s a good time for all of us in Chechnya.”

The early parallels between Chimaev and Susurkaev are impossible to ignore. Chimaev made his UFC debut in 2020 on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi and won White over by asking to fight twice in 10 days. Susurkaev one-upped him by doing the same in four days.

If you visit Susurkaev’s Instagram page, his bio now reads, “DANA’s favourite fighter,” and includes his record, 10-0. He changed the record before making his walk at UFC 319 because he was so certain he would win. Talent and belief have never been a problem for Susurkaev. And now, after one of the greatest weeks in UFC history, opportunity shouldn’t be either.

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