Hecher Sosa is just a couple of hours away from the biggest fight of his professional career \u2014 and just a couple of days removed from the death of his father, who passed away while Sosa was cutting weight for his bantamweight headliner against Mackson Lee atop Episode 6 of Dana White\u2019s \u201cContender Series\u201d tonight (Sept. 16, 2025) at the promotion\u2019s APEX in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt 5 a.m. on Sunday, Las Vegas time, the day the weight cutting starts, my brother calls me, wakes me up and says, \u2018It\u2019s over bro, dad\u2019s gone.\u2019 I told him \u2018okay\u2019 and hung up, nothing else came out of me,\u201d Sosa wrote on Instagram<\/a>. \u201cHung up to start crying and breaking down and feeling a pain so bad I couldn\u2019t explain it. My dad wasn\u2019t going to see me fight. I couldn\u2019t sleep anymore and I started thinking and I came to the conclusion that my father told me before I left, \u2018Son, don\u2019t worry, we started this together and we will finish it together.\u2018 My manager and UFC asked me if I wanted to move on with the fight and I told them \u2018yes,\u2019 because I am a man of my word.\u201d<\/p>\n Sosa, 30, is 13-1 as a pro and the winner of 10 straight.<\/p>\n \u201cI have to honor the memory of my father and if he left his body to be with me inside that cage, we will be in that cage and we will win because we started this together,\u201d Sosa continued. \u201cBecause when I win I will look to the sky and see once again his face of pride, I have no doubt. I\u2019m winning this fight and I don\u2019t care who\u2019s in front of me. We made the weight like professionals, despite feeling sad, despite not sleeping for 30 hours, without eating, without drinking, doing saunas, workouts, baths \u2026 undoubtedly the toughest weight cut of my life. God gives his worst battles to his best warriors, and here I am once again at his mercy to make history.\u201d<\/p>\n Sosa is coming off a technical knockout victory over Yaman Mjahed at WOW 20 last June in Madrid. As for the 26 year-old Lee, he remains perfect at 9-0 after putting the hurt on Filipe Zacaron during LFA 201 back in February. The action gets underway TONIGHT at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN+<\/a>.<\/p>\n For more \u201cContender Series\u201d news and notes click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n