Austin Vanderford opens up on crazy circumstances which led to UFC Seattle debut: “It was just cool”

Welterweight contender Austin Vanderford couldn’t be happier to finally be a member of the UFC.

The 34-year-old has had a rough road to make it to the biggest MMA promotion in the world. In 2018, Dana White famously passed on signing Austin Vanderford, leading to his signing with Bellator the following year. While the wrestler enjoyed his time in the Scott Coker-led promotion, it wouldn’t last.

After back-to-back knockout losses in the company, Austin Vanderford parted ways with Bellator. The longtime husband of Paige VanZant reportedly requested his release from the promotion in 2024, leading to a one-off bout in LFA. Vanderford scored a stoppage win over Victor Romero last October, which led to an unlikely UFC signing.

The former Bellator title challenger faced Nikolay Veretennikov on short notice at UFC Seattle over the weekend. Despite accepting the bout on under a week’s notice, Austin Vanderford scored a second-round knockout win. After the bout, Veretennikov sparked a near-brawl by shoving the wrestler immediately following the stoppage.

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Image via Paige VanZant’s Instagram

Austin Vanderford opens up on whirlwind week leading to UFC signing

Speaking in an interview with MMA Fighting earlier this week, Austin Vanderford opened up on the whole week leading to his UFC signing. During the interview, the 34-year-old revealed that he was originally set to meet Billy Goff at the event, but that bout fell through. While Vanderford had doubts he would join the promotion, everything worked out after all.

“I answered [a call last week] and basically Sean [Shelby] was like ‘hey, I know it’s really late notice, we’re six days out from weigh-ins but if you can make 170 for the UFC Seattle card, I’ve got a spot for you.’ Immediately, I was like yes, please.” Austin Vanderford said. “I didn’t know who the opponent was, didn’t know anything about it. He’s like ‘all right, you’re fighting Billy Goff then next Saturday, we’ll see you out there at UFC Seattle.’ Right then everything was like holy shit, I just got the call. We’re going out to Seattle, babe, book us a ticket!” (h/t MMA Fighting)

He continued, “Thankfully, I got another call at like 11 a.m. Tuesday morning that Nikolay would accept the fight [after Goff pulled out], but it would have to be at 175. At that point, I was like f*cking A man, let’s go. Then I got the contract immediately after that…. More than anything, it was just cool. It was cool to see, fun to see, again positive or negative. Just getting your name talked in this sport is cool for me.”

What do you make of these comments from the UFC welterweight? Who do you want to see Austin Vanderford fight next?