Kaik Brito vacates Oktagon title for chance at UFC contract

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Kaik Brito once again vacated the Oktagon welterweight title in order to try his luck on Dana White’s Contender Series, and he’s confident the UFC contract will come this time around. Brito faces Namo Fazil at Tuesday night’s DWCS card at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas, hoping to impress enough to sign a deal with the UFC after coming up short in his first attempt in 2023. “I’m very happy for another opportunity,” Brito told MMA Fighting. “It shows that God still has a purpose for my life and is guiding me down this path again. I had a fight scheduled and was 100 percent focused on it, but I was already prepared for the possibility that this could happen.” Brito won the Oktagon title before being offered a fight on Dana White’s show in 2023, but walked away with a majority decision loss to Oban Elliott. Brito believes he won that fight, but wasn’t enough to the eyes of the judges. “I and many other people involved in MMA saw that I won that fight,” Brito said. “But when something isn’t meant to be, there’s nothing you can do to make it happen. Everything is in God’s hands. I respect that, and I’m going to keep moving forward. Now I feel like this is another opportunity for me, and I’m going to make it happen.” “There were several moments when I came close to finishing the fight,” he continued. “At no point did I feel like I was going to lose that fight, but it happened. I always look for the finish, whether it’s a submission or a knockout, and that isn’t going to change. I’m calm, I’m at peace, and the only thing that’s different is that I’m in a different moment now, with a different mindset and more prepared, and I’m going to put on a show in there. I have nothing to bring from that moment except the desire to be even better.” Brito scored a quick finish in the Brazilian circuit after DWCS before returning to Oktagon and eventually regaining the belt, stopping Ronald Paradeiser with a wild spinning back knockout in February. He was expected to defend the throne against Amiran Gogoladze in September before the DWCS call came. “It was a little difficult [to leave Oktagon] because I had already gone through the journey again,” Brito said. “I had built the story again, walked every step of the path again, earned another opportunity, and became champion again. I have a huge amount of love for Oktagon, but my goal, my dream, is the UFC. It always has been, from the very beginning, to put on a show and build a legacy there. I built a beautiful story in Oktagon, but for me, that ended there. I really want to make it to the UFC and make history there. I see my future there. It wasn’t easy, but that’s the goal.” Namo Fazil, Brito’s opponent on Aug. 18, enters the octagon riding a seven-fight winning streak across promotions like ONE, UAE Warriors and most recently MVP MMA, where he tapped out Jake Babian. “He’s a very dangerous opponent, and you have to respect him,” Brito said. “I see that it’s a little bit of a mental game as well because he likes to get under your skin and talk trash, but that doesn’t affect me. What I hope is that I’m able to do what I do in training and come away with the victory.”