The one time Baisangur Susurkaev didn’t have a smile on his face two weeks in the past was for a number of moments on a Tuesday evening in Las Vegas — when his staff tried to inform him he wasn’t allowed to eat a steak.
Susurkaev had simply scored a first-round knockout on “Dana White’s Contender Collection” and earned a UFC contract. Naturally, he was within the temper to rejoice, so he went straight from the UFC Apex to Herbs & Rye steakhouse. However when the waiter got here to take Susurkaev’s order, his staff reminded him the UFC was working furiously to guide him a struggle at UFC 319 in Chicago on Saturday — 4 days later.
“I informed him he ought to in all probability order salmon,” Susurkaev’s supervisor, Jamie Gall, informed ESPN this week. “If the UFC did get him a struggle, he must make weight on Friday. He appeared so unhappy that I informed the waiter, ‘OK, give him a steak, however no salt, no butter, don’t even use oil. Simply cooked meat.'”
However Gall nonetheless felt unhealthy. The 24-year-old from Chechnya in Russia, who had been working as a meals supply driver lower than a month earlier than, had simply achieved his dream of signing with the UFC, and all he needed was a correct steak.
Gall phoned her enterprise companion, Dave Martin, who had been in touch with the UFC all evening a couple of potential opening on the UFC 319 card, and requested for an replace. The UFC hadn’t responded to his current messages, Martin informed Gall, and it was getting late.
“Let him eat,” Martin conceded.
Gall discovered the waiter and ordered all of it — the butter, the salt. Throw in an order of fries.
However when the staff returned to the Palace Station lodge after the meal, Martin referred to as again. The UFC had a struggle for Susurkaev in Chicago.
On the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 12, Susurkaev was a struggling fighter from Chechnya residing and coaching in South Florida who had solely fought twice previously three years. 4 days later, he walked to the Octagon in entrance of a sold-out United Middle crowd and submitted his opponent within the second spherical to change into the primary particular person to win a “Contender Collection” bout and a UFC debut in the identical week. “I haven’t been this excited a couple of man in a really very long time,” UFC CEO Dana White declared after Susurkaev’s “DWCS” win.
Susurkaev’s run will go down as one of many single biggest weeks in UFC historical past. Listed below are the behind-the-scenes particulars that present how Susurkaev got here to this second, and contextualize how spectacular it’s.
Susurkaev has practically given up on MMA a number of occasions over the previous two years.
He took a danger and moved to the U.S. from Chechnya in 2023, after a number of of his MMA sponsors dropped out of the enterprise due to financial modifications ensuing from the Russia-Ukraine Conflict.
“When the battle began, there was much less cash being invested into fighters,” Susurkaev informed ESPN. “So, for me it was, ‘Am I going to remain and discover work or am I going to attempt?’ It was my finest pal who informed me I needed to do it. After listening to his phrases, I knew I needed to attempt.”
Susurkaev and his older brother, Tamerlan, a former skilled fighter, traveled to the U.S. and began coaching at Kill Cliff MMA. Tamerlan initially wasn’t purported to go to the U.S. however determined he needed to be in his brother’s nook as his coach, simply as he had been in Chechnya.
When the 2 had sufficient cash, they lived in a lodge throughout the road from the gymnasium in Deerfield Seashore, Florida. When cash ran brief, they slept in a automobile within the lodge parking zone or on one of many lounge chairs subsequent to the lodge’s pool.
Susurkaev’s expertise was instantly obvious. Kill Cliff is dwelling to a few of the finest fighters on this planet, together with former champions Kamaru Usman, Robbie Lawler and Rashad Evans, and Susurkaev blended in simply superb on the mats. There have been occasions he would spar with one other middleweight at Kill Cliff, return to his lodge, play the UFC online game and acknowledge the face of a fighter he had simply rolled with.
“I don’t watch fights,” Susurkaev stated. “So we might go to decide on our gamers [in the video game] and I’d say, ‘Who is that this? I sparred with him in the present day. Who is that this man?'”
The problem he bumped into was an absence of fights. Gall and her companions at MAG Company struggled to search out him alternatives. Between 2024 and the primary half of 2025, Susurkaev solely fought twice — at Las Vegas promotion Borroka’s inaugural occasion and Fury FC.
Susurkaev got here near abandoning his dream once more due to the shortage of labor, even packing his baggage to depart on a number of events. His staff noticed it weighing on him.
“He was nice within the gymnasium, however you could possibly inform he was struggling in life,” Lawler informed ESPN. “He wouldn’t be at follow. I’d ask the place he was, and you could possibly simply inform stuff was weighing on him. I didn’t ask him personally as a result of I didn’t have that relationship with him, however he was by no means getting fights and I’m certain that wasn’t straightforward on him.”
His administration staff had tried and didn’t safe him a spot on this yr’s season of “Dana White’s Contender Collection” till the UFC reached out on Aug. 5 to ask if Susurkaev was out there to fill in for a middleweight who had pulled out of an Aug. 12 matchup. The timing was excellent. Susurkaev had simply spent the previous month in California as a primary sparring companion for UFC star and fellow Chechen Khamzat Chimaev, so he was in combating form.
The primary week of Season 9 of “DWCS” will go down as one of many worst episodes within the collection’ historical past. The UFC fielded 5 fights and awarded solely two contracts, the fewest of any episode in additional than three years.
The brilliant spot was Susurkaev, who scored a walk-off, front-kick knockout three minutes into the primary spherical.
“My man,” White stated to Susurkaev, as he introduced Susurkaev’s contract on the finish of the present. “You’re an absolute killer. I like all the pieces about you. We’re going to be seeing you [in the UFC] very quickly.”
As White spoke, Susurkaev held up 4 fingers on his proper hand, signaling 4 days till the UFC pay-per-view occasion in Chicago. He had informed Gall earlier than the Tuesday occasion that he deliberate to earn a contract and struggle on the identical card as Chimaev, who was difficult Dricus Du Plessis for the middleweight championship in the primary occasion. He was so adamant about combating on the cardboard that he refused to signal a Nevada State Athletic Fee doc that restricts coaching and competing for at least seven days after a sanctioned occasion to medically recuperate. Finally, he did signal, and the suspension was waived.
Susurkaev was already scheduled to be in Chicago to cheer on Chimaev, nicely earlier than any of this. He met Chimaev in Chechnya in 2022 and shared the coaching room with him that yr. They stayed in contact, and when Chimaev determined to carry the ultimate month of his UFC 319 camp in Huntington Seashore, California, he invited Susurkaev to hitch him.
“He’s a giant motivation for me and everybody in Chechnya,” Susurkaev stated. “In Russia, for those who struggle for the UFC, you’re a celebrity. And he has reached an unbelievable degree. I noticed this with him, and it turned my dream.”
The UFC knowledgeable Susurkaev that it had booked him a UFC struggle the identical evening he knocked out Murtaza Talha within the first spherical with a kick to the liver. He verbally agreed to make his UFC debut 4 days later towards an opponent to be decided. He didn’t discover out he could be up towards fellow newcomer Eric Nolan till Wednesday morning, on his flight to Chicago.
Susurkaev reunited together with his sparring companion, Chimaev, on the UFC 319 fighter lodge in Chicago, the place the 2 Chechens discovered themselves on the focal point.
“It was very unusual for me,” Susurkaev admitted. “There have been cameras each minute, you realize? I used to be prepared for all the pieces when it got here to combating, however not being well-known. Within the lodge, guys needed footage with me. It was massive, massive consideration.”
Chimaev invited Susurkaev to his room that night to supply his congratulations — and his bank card. The UFC had added Susurkaev to its information convention lineup the next day, and Chimaev needed him to look good.
“He stated, ‘Go to the shop, and purchase all the pieces you need,'” Susurkaev stated.
By the top of the evening, Susurkaev had a brand new $8,000 wardrobe. Chimaev even loaned him a designer watch, as a crowning glory to the information convention ensemble.
“All my life, I’ve by no means had greater than $100, $200 of garments,” Susurkaev stated. “I felt like I used to be wealthy strolling out with these garments.”
Regardless of the indulgent meal on Tuesday evening, Susurkaev made weight on Friday morning, and his first stroll to the UFC Octagon on Saturday evening performed out like one prolonged celebration. He smiled all the best way from the tunnel to the Octagon — and continued to smile as soon as the struggle began. It was not possible to overlook his older brother, Tamerlan, by his aspect for the walk-in, as a result of he was actually leaping into the air.
“I couldn’t consider it,” Tamerlan stated. “I couldn’t consider that it was actual. It felt like we have been residing in a PlayStation recreation. It was an excessive amount of. I couldn’t even take all of it in.”
Susurkaev submitted Nolan within the second spherical to earn the primary submission victory of his profession. His postfight interview within the Octagon with Joe Rogan aired stay on ESPN and has been considered greater than 100,000 occasions on YouTube. Later that night, Chimaev dominated Du Plessis to change into a UFC champion. It’s laborious to say there’ll ever be a much bigger night for Chechen MMA.
“In my village, it was loopy, loopy,” Susurkaev stated. “Like we had received a battle or one thing like this. So many individuals, assembly in fields, watching in massive rooms. It’s time for all of us in Chechnya.”
The early parallels between Chimaev and Susurkaev are not possible to disregard. Chimaev made his UFC debut in 2020 on Battle Island in Abu Dhabi and received White over by asking to struggle twice in 10 days. Susurkaev one-upped him by doing the identical in 4 days.
For those who go to Susurkaev’s Instagram web page, his bio now reads, “DANA’s favorite fighter,” and consists of his file, 10-0. He modified the file earlier than making his stroll at UFC 319 as a result of he was so sure he would win. Expertise and perception have by no means been an issue for Susurkaev. And now, after one of many biggest weeks in UFC historical past, alternative shouldn’t be both.
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