Who is the eighth Peruvian fighter in history to sign with the UFC? All the details

At 30 years old, the Peruvian Gaston Bolanos He has become the eighth Peruvian fighter in history to sign with UFCthe world’s largest mixed martial arts (MMA) company.

in dialogue with TradeBolaños revealed that conversations with the UFC began in April of this year, after his last fight in Bellator, the league in which he made his professional debut.

The Peruvian, known as ‘The dream killer’, has a record of nine fights: six wins and three losses. All of his wins so far have been by knockout (KO) or technical knockout (TKO). The aggressiveness in the fight on the feet is the main characteristic of Bolaños.

In Bellator, Gastón Bolaños competed at featherweight (65.7 kg), but his plan is to compete in the UFC at bantamweight (61 kg). “All my life, in muay thai and kickboxing I have fought at 63.5 kg. I haven’t had a hard time getting to featherweight. For this reason, my team and I have decided that the best thing is to go down to bantamweight”he explained to this newspaper.

On the other hand, the Peruvian athlete maintained that he hopes to debut in the Octagon in the first months of next year. “Now I am training fully, I am trying to be as complete a fighter as possible for this new stage of my career”he added.

Regarding his time at Bellator, Bolaños stated: “I feel like I accomplished a lot there and showed that at any time I can knock out anyone. […] Every day I learn something especially with the training that I am following now”he concluded.

Gastón Bolaños will compete in the same category as Daniel ‘Sóncora’ Marcos, who won a UFC contract after a resounding victory over Brandon Lewis in the program “Dana White’s Contender Series”.

Peru in the Octagon

In just over two decades, eight Peruvian athletes have fought in the UFC. The first was Tony de Souza, who debuted for the company in May 2001 with a unanimous decision win over Steve Berger.

This is a summary of the Peruvian presence in the UFC: