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This weekend’s UFC Fight Night show sees Terrance McKinney take on Drew Dober, and incredibly, ‘T-Wrecks’ is taking the bout on just 14 days’ notice.
Over the years, we’ve seen a number of UFC fighters take bouts on incredibly late notice, often with a very quick turnaround after their previous fight.
The method doesn’t always work, as plenty of fighters ended up losing momentum after taking a late-notice bout close to their previous one, but for others, taking the risk helped advance their career greatly.
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With that in mind, here are the five quickest turnarounds in UFC history.
#5. Sijara Eubanks – UFC flyweight contender
It’s probably safe to say that Sijara Eubanks’ career with the UFC hasn’t gone as well as she might’ve initially hoped. However, she still deserves plenty of credit for taking a fight on a quick 14-day turnaround in late 2020.
Eubanks came into the promotion back in 2017 via the 26th season of The Ultimate Fighter, and after defeating three opponents on the reality show, found herself in line for a shot at becoming the inaugural women’s flyweight champion.
However, after missing weight for that title bout, ‘SarJ’ did not make her official debut in the octagon until June 2018, and in the years that have followed, her career has largely been an up-and-down one.
After reeling off two straight wins as a bantamweight in 2020, though, Eubanks appeared to be hitting her stride. The second of those wins came on September 12th against Julia Avila, and was enough to convince ‘SarJ’ to take a major risk just two weeks later.
With Marion Reneau injured, former top bantamweight contender Ketlen Vieira required a new opponent. Eubanks decided to take the fight, hoping that a win would catapult her to the top of the division.
Unfortunately, she lost the bout by unanimous decision, halting her momentum to the point that she also fell to defeat in her next bout just three months later. At the time of writing, ‘SarJ’ has won just one of her past four fights, meaning that her decision to fight on a quick turnaround failed to pay off.
#4. Sean Strickland – UFC middleweight contender
Sean Strickland is currently one of the top contenders in the UFC’s middleweight division. ‘Tarzan’ is riding a six-fight win streak, but while his wins over Jack Hermansson and Uriah Hall helped to elevate his ranking, his two wins in late 2020 were arguably more impressive – because they came with just a 14-day gap between them.
Bizarrely, Strickland hadn’t fought for over two years before his fight with Jack Marshman in October 2020. A contract issue with the promotion, followed by nagging injuries caused by a motorcycle accident, left him on the shelf. However, he was clearly determined to make up for lost time when he returned.
‘Tarzan’ comfortably outpointed Marshman with his striking – entertaining the fans watching at home by trash-talking throughout the bout – and despite taking a handful of shots from the Welshman, didn’t appear to accumulate much damage.
A week later, middleweight prospect Brendan Allen’s fight with Ian Heinisch fell apart when Heinisch tested positive for COVID-19. So, the UFC decided to come up with a novel solution.
They offered Allen a fight with Strickland – who was more than happy to take the booking – on the following weekend’s show, just 14 days after ‘Tarzan’ had beaten Marshman.
In this instance, Strickland was definitely not favored to win. Allen was coming off three straight octagon wins and had looked highly impressive and had time to prepare for the bout.
Instead, Strickland again dominated with his striking skills, and eventually dropped Allen with a one-two and finished him off in the second round. It was a truly remarkable win, particularly given ‘Tarzan’ hadn’t fought since 2018 prior to the two fights.
#3. Chas Skelly – UFC featherweight contender
When Chas Skelly announced his retirement following his victory over Mark Striegl in February, few eyebrows were raised. After all, despite being a UFC fighter for the best part of eight years, ‘The Scrapper’ had always largely flown under the radar.
However, Skelly’s one claim to fame was that at one point, he held the record for the quickest turnaround between fights in UFC history. More to the point, the hard-nosed wrestler found a way to win both bouts, making his record even more impressive.
After an unsuccessful octagon debut in April 2014 saw him lose to Mirsad Bektic, Skelly bounced back that August by submitting Tom Niinimaki with a first-round guillotine choke. The fight only lasted just over two minutes, so when Andre Fili was sidelined with an injury and was forced out of his bout with Sean Soriano just thirteen days later, in stepped ‘The Scrapper’.
Remarkably, despite basically having no training camp for the fight, Skelly looked very impressive in the fight, largely outworking Soriano - who, to be fair, had been training to take on a striker in Fili - on the ground.
Ironically enough, while Skelly’s career continued with several ups and downs in later years, he then managed an equally remarkable feat. He returned from nearly three years on the shelf to defeat Striegl - giving him back-to-back wins that spanned a grand total of 781 days.
#2. Khamzat Chimaev – UFC welterweight contender
Few fighters in UFC history have been able to capitalize on late notice, quick turnaround fights quite as much as Khamzat Chimaev. In the space of just ten days in the summer of 2020, he went from being a total unknown to one of the hottest fighters in the world of MMA.
Chimaev’s story began when he decided to take a bout with John Phillips on just eight days notice on the promotion’s second visit to Abu Dhabi’s Fight Island. At the time, ‘Borz’ held a 6-0 record but hadn’t really fought any big names and certainly wasn’t a heralded prospect.
However, Wales’ Phillips had nothing for him, as Chimaev dominated proceedings on the ground, en route to a second-round submission via D’Arce choke.
Uniquely, it was Chimaev, rather than the UFC, who decided on the quick turnaround before his next bout. Feeling he’d taken next to no damage from Phillips, he asked Dana White for a fight as soon as possible - and was matched with Rhys McKee just ten days after his first visit to the octagon.
The Sweden-based Chechnyan did not disappoint, dispatching ‘Skeletor’ in the first round via TKO. The hype train around him hasn’t slowed down since, as he’s delivered two more impressive wins and looks like a genuine title contender.
‘Borz’ may well be the best example of a fighter whose decision to take a bout on a quick turnaround paid off handsomely.
#1. Loopy Godinez – UFC strawweight contender
The current holder of the record for the quickest turnaround between fights in the UFC is strawweight prospect Loopy Godinez. She fought twice in the space of seven days in October 2021, and while she didn’t win both fights, the fact that she was willing to take the second in the first place deserves a ton of respect.
Godinez initially debuted in the octagon in April 2021, falling to a defeat against former strawweight title challenger Jessica Penne via unanimous decision. It was always likely to be a tough debut fight for her, so it came as no surprise when the promotion bought her back six months later.
This time, the Mexican fighter did not disappoint, as she submitted opponent Silvana Gomez Juarez with an armbar after just over four minutes. However, if she was expecting another six-month layoff following the bout, she was sorely mistaken.
Just one day after her victory, the UFC’s matchmakers contacted her to see if she’d be willing to face Luana Carolina in the octagon the very next weekend, as the Brazilian was left without an opponent following the withdrawal of Sijara Eubanks.
Godinez agreed and stepped up to 125lbs for the fight, making history in the process. Although she was defeated, her willingness to step up on such short notice has earned her a spot in the promotion’s history books - for now at least - and it’s likely that her octagon career will probably last far longer because of it.
