Melvin Manhoef hasn’t given up on his UFC dream just yet.
The 38-year-old striker’s manager Jorge Guimaraes told MMAFighting.com recently that they are still trying to get Manhoef (28-11-1, 1 NC) signed by the UFC.
“I think Melvin is pure excitement from his walkout song choreography to his performances,” Guimaraes said. “He has the highest KO ratio. Out of his 28 victories, 26 are by KO or TKO, and out of his 11 losses only one went to the judges.”
Manhoef showed up to UFC 156 last year in hopes of landing a deal, however, that never came to fruition. And while he’s 1-2 since then, he is coming off a 46-second knockout of “Cyborg” Santos in April.
“I have fought everywhere,” Manhoef said on The MMA Hour last year. “K-1, DREAM, Strikeforce; and the only thing that is missing is also the UFC. So I’m going to do every fight that I have to do, I’m going to put it all in. If it happens, it happens, and I want it to happen.”
Manhoef is scheduled to compete in GLORY kickboxing’s one-night middleweight tournament pay-per-view event on June 21. If he doesn’t win the tournament, he is free to fight elsewhere, while a tournament win would mean he owes the promotion one more fight.