Austin Vanderford, a 2008 graduate of Ninilchik School, won his UFC debut Saturday, Feb. 22, in Seattle.
Vanderford won 4 minutes, 13 seconds, into the second round, when the referee stopped the fight with Nikolay Veretennikov of Kazakhstan.
In late February 2022, Vanderford, who won two state wrestling titles at Ninilchik and an NAIA title in college for Southern Oregon University in 2012, lost to Gegard Mousasi in the fight for the middleweight title at Bellator 275.
That was the first loss of his mixed martial arts career.
Vanderford, a member of the Alaska High School Hall of Fame, lost again in Bellator in August 2022, then left Bellator.
His next fight came in the Legacy Fighting Alliance, where he got a win in October 2024.
Vanderford, now 13-2-0, left LFA with his eyes on getting his UFC shot. He didn’t learn of his bout until Saturday, Feb. 15, according to mmafighting.com. It wasn’t until Tuesday that the opponent and weight class of the fight were fully worked out.
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