Luis Hernandez UFC Contract Sealed After Dramatic DWCS Submission
Luis Hernandez is a UFC fighter after Dana White signed him following a second-round submission of Hugo Guillon on Week 6 of Dana White’s Contender Series. The Miami middleweight improved to 8-0 when he locked in a rear-naked choke at 1:01 of round two at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas.
The official graphic released after Tuesday’s show put Hernandez next to Igor Cavalcanti, Akbar Abdullaev, and Mayton Perea. White awarded those four contracts and passed on the only winner who went the distance.
Hernandez, known as “The Stache,” is a 30-year-old southpaw and an active Miami-Dade sheriff’s deputy. He had never heard judges’ scores as a professional, and the Contender Series date did not change that.
Guillon is a 6-foot-4 French middleweight who arrived 7-1 with a no contest on his record. Hernandez had to survive length, a knockdown, and a choke before he could finish the fight.
The first round was a sprint. Hernandez punched into range, scored an early takedown, then got thrown by a judo toss and stood right back up into the clinch.
He landed body kicks and a left hand that sent Guillon across the cage. Guillon answered with a right, took over late in the round, and still could not keep Hernandez off him through the horn.
Round two turned in a few seconds. Hernandez came forward, walked into a short left hook, and hit the canvas.
Guillon followed with knees, took him down, and locked an anaconda choke. Hernandez escaped, took the back, and forced the tap at 1:01.
That sequence is why White signed him. A safe decision against a taller prospect would have looked like the opener. Climbing off the mat and ending the night with a choke is the tape the show is built to reward.
Hernandez now has five submissions and three knockouts in eight wins. His last regional fight was a third-round TKO of Paulo Machado at Combat Night in South Florida on Oct. 11, 2025.
The finish that first put him on highlight pages came at Titan FC 83 on July 21, 2023. He knocked out Brian Topp with a head kick in the opening second of the fight.
Before the Apex date, he had already told local television what the show wanted. “They want to see a spontaneous, like a good win, they want to see entertainment, that you can be an entertaining fighter, and also have the skill set and go out there and perform,” Hernandez said.
He had also been in a viral cage-side fight that had nothing to do with his own opponent. After he submitted Miles Hunsinger with a standing guillotine at Tuff-N-Uff 145 in June 2025, Sean Strickland and Chris Curtis left the corner and went after him.
Strickland landed a punch. The Nevada Athletic Commission later suspended Strickland six months and fined him $5,000, while Curtis was fined $2,500.
Hernandez told Ariel Helwani he had been answering Strickland during the fight. “He said some things, and I said some things back, and he didn’t like what I said,” Hernandez said.
The Luis Hernandez UFC story that matters now is the contract, not the melee. White signed the men who finished on Tuesday and held back the man who wrestled to a decision.
Abdullaev’s 19-second knockout of Ednilson Santos drew the strongest language of the night. White called him “the greatest talent that’s ever been on this show.”
Cavalcanti used his second Contender Series appearance to stop Oscar Ravello at 1:38 of round one. Perea then needed 45 seconds to knock out Hunt and become the first Ecuadorian signed from this episode.
Hernandez was the only one of the four who had to climb out of trouble to get the deal. That is also why his tape may travel as far as the faster knockouts on the same card.
Middleweight is crowded, and a first booking on a UFC card is the next thing White’s matchmakers have to solve.
Week 7 returns to the same building on Sept. 22. Hernandez’s next fight will be inside the UFC, not on another Contender Series Tuesday.