Baysangur Susurkaev made quite a first impression with a devastating body shot knockout on The Contender Series on Tuesday to earn his UFC contract, and now he’s already booked his octagon debut just three days later.
The 9-0 middleweight is making an incredibly quick turnaround to face Eric Nolan at UFC 319 on Saturday from the United Center in Chicago. Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed the news to MMA Fighting on Wednesday after ZacLikesMMA first posted the news on Twitter.
Khamzat Chimaev, who competes in the UFC 319 main event, revealed during an interview that Susurkaev was going to join him on the card after earning his contract less than 24 hours ago.
It says a lot that Susurkaev fought in Las Vegas on Tuesday, got his UFC deal done and he’s now flying to Chicago to compete in the promotion on Saturday. Funny enough, Chimaev’s UFC career started in somewhat similar fashion when he rattled off his first two fights in just 10 days’ time.
As for Nolan, he gets his opportunity to compete in the UFC with the fight booked against Susurkaev.
Nolan sports an 8-3 record during his career and he’s currently riding a four-fight win streak including a knockout to claim the Cage Fury Fighting Championships welterweight title back in May. He’ll make his UFC debut on short notice against a rising star in Susurkaev.
The matchup joins the UFC 319 lineup with Chimaev clashing with UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis in the main event.
