Austin Vanderford, also known as Mr. Paige VanZant, made good on his short-notice Octagon debut earlier tonight (Sat., Feb. 22, 2025) at UFC Seattle LIVE on ESPN+ from inside Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Wash., turning Contender Series standout Nikolay Veretennikov into a grappling dummy.
It didn’t take Vanderford long to secure a takedown in the first round and lean on his strong top game. The former Bellator MMA middleweight title challenger logged almost four minutes of top time over the first five minutes as he didn’t give his opponent a second to breathe. It was total domination.
Vanderford went back to the well in the second round and scored another early takedown. Veretennikov didn’t offer much defense at all, but did avoid some fight-ending submission attempts. Unfortunately for him, Vanderford decided to abandon his submission game and started to unload heavy ground-and-pound while locking up one of Veretennikov’s arms. Eventually, the punches added up and forced the referee’s hand.
Check out Vanderford’s TKO finish below:
AUSTIN VANDERFORD GETS THE FINISH IN HIS UFC DEBUT #UFCSEATTLE pic.twitter.com/KQUdmLqcKk
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) February 23, 2025
Sadly, the action didn’t stop there. After the loss, Veretennikov made his way over to Vanderford and pushed him against the cage. The two exchanged a quick word or two and Vanderford pushed Veretennikov back before flipping him off. The Seattle crowd roared for Vanderford as chants of “U-S-A” broke out.
It was a wild scene for a fight that came together just earlier this week. Check out the post-fight melee below:
Nikolay Veretennikov landed his biggest shot on Austin Vanderford after the fight lol
— Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) February 23, 2025
For complete UFC Seattle results, coverage, and highlights click HERE.