Malcolm Wellmaker made quite the statement in his UFC debut.
The 2024 Contender Series alumnus knocked out South Africa’s Cameron Saaiman with a gorgeous opening-round counter right hook in a preliminary bout Saturday at a UFC Fight Night event in Kansas City, Mo.
Wellmaker is now 9-0 in professional mixed martial arts despite not training full-time for MMA. The 30-year-old spends his days working as a pipe fitter and earned his UFC contract this past August thanks to a right hook knockout in his Contender Series appearance.
“We knew that was gonna happen. We knew that was gonna be the (finishing) shot,” Wellmaker said of the clean, crisp punch that ended Saaiman’s night.
Saaiman, 24, now finds himself on a three-fight losing streak after the 2022 Contender Series grad began his UFC tenure 3-0.
Wellmaker is from Augusta, Ga., and the promising bantamweight called for a spot on the upcoming UFC Fight Night: Usman vs. Buckley event set to take place June 14 in Atlanta, which Wellmaker said is just a two-hour drive from his house.
Jimmy Flick frustrated fellow flyweight Matt Schnell early and often with single-leg takedowns and ground control throughout their 125-pound meeting, but it wasn’t enough to get his hand raised.
Flick won the opening round on all three judges’ scorecards and found dominant positions in the final two rounds. However, Schnell was able to reverse positions on multiple occasions in Round 2 and Round 3 and was able to do enough damage and work submission attempts to win the final two rounds to earn a decision victory and snap a three-fight skid that dated back almost three years.
Jaqueline Amorim extended her winning and finishing streak to four in a row and made it look easy. Amorim wasted no time in her strawweight bout with Polyana Viana, taking the action to the canvas within the first 10 seconds of both Round 1 and Round 2, eventually locking in a rear-naked choke to add another submission victory to her record.
Men’s bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili was in the corner of Viana, who is now on the second three-fight losing streak of her UFC career. Viana fell to 4-7 since joining the organization in 2018.
Amorim lost a decision to Sam Hughes at UFC 287 in her organizational debut but has since finished four consecutive opponents and is on the verge of earning a spot within the top 15 at 115 pounds.
Joselyne Edwards got the crowd to its feet early in the opening bout of the prelims as she finished Chelsea Chandler with a series of punches midway through the first round. Edwards caught Chandler at the end of a clean left hook to earn the first KO/TKO win of her UFC career.
Edwards has won two in a row and five of her past seven overall and will be ranked within the top 15 contenders in the women’s bantamweight division since she was unranked. Chandler entered Saturday’s event as the No. 14-ranked contender at 135 pounds.
The 14-fight event at T-Mobile Center was headlined by ranked welterweight contenders Ian Machado Garry and Carlos Prates.
Also on the prelims, Timothy Cuamba had a standout performance against Roberto Romero, picking up his first UFC win thanks to a second-round technical knockout. Cuamba staggered Romero with an overhand right late in Round 2, followed up with a left high kick, then timed a jumping left knee as his rocked opponent pressed forward. Cuamba is now 1-2 at the UFC level, while Romero fell to 0-2 after dropping his debut to David Onama in November.
Da’Mon Blackshear got his hand raised after 15 tough minutes spent in the cage opposite Alatengheili. Blackshear has won three in a row, all within the past six months, and had the help of former UFC welterweight champion and Hall of Famer Robbie Lawler in his corner.
Missouri lightweights Evan Elder and Gauge Young went at it in front of the home crowd, with Elder sweeping the scorecards. Both 155-pounders accepted the matchup on short notice after Young stepped in to replace Elder’s original opponent, Ahmad Hassanzada, who was arrested earlier in the month and removed from the UFC roster. Young was making his UFC debut; Elder is now 3-2 in the promotion and is on a three-fight winning streak.
The most competitive contest on the prelims was between bantamweights Chris Gutierrez and John Castaneda. Gutierrez implemented his usual game plan, landing low leg kicks often and emerging with a split decision win.
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