Brendson Ribeiro Record: 17-10-0

UFC career

Ribeiro's Octagon run has been a roller coaster befitting the volatile light heavyweight division. He debuted in February 2024 at UFC 298 and was caught early, losing by first-round knockout to Mingyang Zhang. He then dropped a majority decision to unbeaten Magomed Gadzhiyasulov in June 2024 before steadying himself with a hard-fought split-decision win over Caio Machado in November 2024. He opened 2025 with his best UFC performance, submitting previously unbeaten Diyar Nurgozhay with a second-round kimura. The momentum stalled against the division's heavy hitters: he was stopped by unbeaten Azamat Murzakanov in June 2025 and by Oumar Sy that September, then submitted by Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev in April 2026. He is scheduled to return against Magomed Tuchalov in July 2026.

Fighting style

Ribeiro is a finisher through and through – 16 of his 17 wins have come inside the distance, split almost evenly between knockouts and submissions, an enormous 94% finish rate among his victories. His length lets him crack from range with heavy hands, while his ground game, sharpened on the Brazilian circuit, gives him real submission threat off scrambles, as the kimura over Nurgozhay showed. The trade-off is durability under fire: five of his ten losses have come by knockout and three by submission, and several of his UFC defeats arrived early. He is a high-variance, high-reward light heavyweight who can end a fight in an instant but has also been caught by the division's sharpest punchers.

Career highlights

• Contender Series knockout — flattened unbeaten prospect Bruno Lopes in the first round to earn his UFC contract in 2023.
• Shooto Brasil light heavyweight champion — captured a regional title by stopping João Paulo Fagundes, the signature win of his pre-UFC career.
• Elite finishing rate — 16 of his 17 career wins have come by knockout or submission, including a kimura finish of previously unbeaten Diyar Nurgozhay.