MMA fighter Claudio Ribeiro earns UFC contract with insane Tekken-style knockout

Claudio Ribeiro earned a UFC contract last night with one of the craziest finishes we’ve seen in a long time.

Dana White’s Contender Series has proven to be an absolute gem of a product for the Ultimate Fighting Championship across the last few years. From new faces rising up to utterly brutal knockouts and beyond, these kids are as hungry as they’ve ever been to make an impact and earn a contract in the UFC.

Sometimes the event doesn’t always go to plan but following on from a questionable first week in the 2022 season, the last few outings have seen the UFC president hand out a parade of contracts – and we can’t say that we blame him.

Last night, we saw yet another string of impressive fights and a lot of contracts being given out with White clearly being in a good mood heading into UFC 278 this weekend.

A whole host of performances stood out but one, in particular, was so wacky that it needs to be talked about on its own.

Claudio Ribeiro and Ivan Valenzuela squared off in a contest that quite literally lasted 25 seconds and throughout that duration, you could be forgiven for thinking you were playing a game of Tekken or Mortal Kombat.

The ending, which some have seen as a controversial stoppage, came when Valenzuela missed a spinning back fist and walked straight into a super nasty left hand that left his head bouncing off of the canvas.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED