Chris Padilla Submits Nasrat Haqparast With One Second Remaining
Chris Padilla submitted Nasrat Haqparast with one second remaining in Round 3, locking an arm-triangle choke at 4:59 to win a lightweight prelim at UFC Sacramento. The finish put Haqparast out at the horn and gave Padilla one of the rarest clocks in UFC history.
The official result at UFC Fight Night: Hernandez vs. Rodrigues was a technical submission. Referee Frank Trigg’s bout ended on the Golden 1 Center canvas as the clock showed 4:59.
Padilla improved to 18-6-1 overall and 5-0-1 in the UFC. Haqparast fell to 18-7 and 10-6 inside the promotion.
The historic piece is the time, not just the method. The tap came with one second left, the fourth submission in UFC history completed with one second remaining on the clock.
It is also tied for the second-latest submission in UFC history. That group includes Ricky Simon’s technical guillotine of Merab Dvalishvili at 5:00 of Round 3 in April 2018.
Saturday’s version was just as abrupt. The fight had been close enough that the third round still had to settle it.
Padilla, the Gardena native nicknamed “Taco,” used front kicks and leg kicks to take the first round. Haqparast, a longtime UFC lightweight listed out of Rabat, Morocco, answered in the second with left hands, body work, and late pressure.
The third round stayed tight until the final 90 seconds. Padilla dropped Haqparast with a right hook, followed with elbows and hammerfists, then had to restart when the veteran got back to his feet.
He did not wait for the judges. Padilla walked him into the clinch, wrapped a standing arm-triangle, and took the fight to the mat with the choke still locked.
Haqparast went unconscious as the round expired. Because he was out, the result was recorded as a technical submission rather than a tap.
Padilla came in at 156 pounds to Haqparast’s 155.5, a pound over the lightweight limit. The bout still went on, and the late choke made the scale a footnote.
The win extends an unbeaten UFC run that started with a first-round rear-naked choke of James Llontop in April 2024. Padilla had been 4-0-1 in the Octagon, with his only blemish a majority draw against MarQuel Mederos at UFC 327.
That draw was the last time he heard a decision. Haqparast, a 10-fight UFC winner before Saturday, had not fought since a October 2025 loss to Quillan Salkilld in Abu Dhabi.
The Chris Padilla last-second submission does not move him into the official lightweight rankings overnight. Justin Gaethje holds the 155-pound title, and Padilla is still climbing out of the pack UFC.com had grouped in the “second 15.”
It does change how that climb looks. An unbeaten UFC record, a veteran on the other side of the cage, and a finish at 4:59 is the kind of tape that forces another look from matchmakers.
Padilla leaves Sacramento 5-0-1 in the UFC, still unbeaten under the banner, and attached to a finish that now sits next to Simon-Dvalishvili on the latest-submission list.