Akbar Abdullaev Earns UFC Contract With 19-Second DWCS Knockout
Akbar Abdullaev is heading to the UFC after a 19-second knockout of Ednilson Santos on Tuesday’s Week 6 card of Dana White’s Contender Series. The finish kept the Kyrgyzstan lightweight unbeaten at 14-0 and put him on the official contract graphic released after the show at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas.
Dana White signed four fighters from the episode. Abdullaev joined Luis Hernandez, Igor Cavalcanti, and Mayton Perea on that list.
The official bout graphic told the story in a handful of numbers. Abdullaev landed 3 of 3 significant strikes, scored the only knockdown, and ended the fight by punch at 0:19 of round one.
Santos landed nothing of consequence. The Brazilian went 0 of 3 in total strikes and never recorded control time, a takedown, or a submission attempt.
Abdullaev started at the body. Two clean shots brought Santos’ guard down, and the overhand right that followed put him face-first on the canvas.
Referee Jason Herzog did not need a second look. The fight was over before it had a chance to become a three-round tryout.
White’s reaction matched the tape. He sat back in his chair, then smiled and pointed toward the winner as the Apex crowd caught up to what it had just seen.
After the card, White called him “the greatest talent that’s ever been on this show.” That line followed Abdullaev from the cage to the post-fight interviews.
Asked what the praise meant, Abdullaev said through a translator that it did not change how he sees himself. “My skills allow me to fight in top 10, and I always knew that,” he said.
The record behind that claim is simple. He is 14-0 with 13 knockouts and one submission, and he has never heard a judges’ decision as a professional.
He was born Sept. 21, 1997, stands 5-foot-9, and fights at 155 pounds. The nickname “Bakal” has followed him from Kyrgyzstan through ONE Championship and now onto the UFC roster.
His ONE run was 5-0, all by knockout. The biggest win there was the fifth-round TKO of Tang Kai, a fight that did not award the featherweight title because Abdullaev failed the hydration test.
He left ONE in the spring of 2026 and took the Contender Series date as the next step. Santos was a late replacement after Anthony Figueroa withdrew, and the Brazilian had been preparing for an LFA fight in October.
The mismatch showed up immediately. Santos trains with the New Jersey camp connected to Alex Pereira, but that résumé item never made it past the first 19 seconds.
The rest of the night explained why White signed four men and passed on one. Cavalcanti, on his second Contender Series appearance, stopped Oscar Ravello at 1:38 of round one and moved to 14-2.
Hernandez, the Miami-Dade sheriff’s deputy, was dropped in round two by Hugo Guillon, escaped an anaconda choke, and finished with a rear-naked choke at 1:01. Perea then needed 45 seconds to knock out Hunt and give Ecuador a new welterweight on the roster.
Williams beat Antonio Monteiro by unanimous decision, 29-27, 29-28, and 29-27, and still went home without a deal. White has been consistent on that point all season: a win is required, and a finish is what usually gets paid.
Abdullaev’s night fit the second half of that standard. One right hand, a 14-0 record, and a contract graphic with his name under it were the entire story.
He has no UFC debut date yet. Through a translator after the fight, he said the praise did not move his own target, because he already believed he could fight at the top of the lightweight division.
Week 7 returns to the same building on Sept. 22. Abdullaev’s next fight will be on a UFC card, against a roster lightweight instead of another Contender Series opponent.