said in his UFC post-fight interview<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m here for my name to be etched in this division. I came to do things. To [create] an image. To stomp my foot and to do something with this division and to be a champion.<\/p>\n\u201cI want to tell people that I belong here, not that I\u2019m just a boy, a baby that came in here and maybe is being fast tracked to success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vallejos admitted after his win that he walked into the cage with a few extra nerves because he was facing an opponent in Emmett, who he grew up watching before he even dreamed about competing in the UFC. He also knew Emmett packed a serious punch and he was capable of going to war with anybody, which included taking Ilia Topuria to a five-round decision when they met in 2023.<\/p>\n
In the end, Vallejos had nothing to worry about because he put on a nearly flawless performance, outlanding Emmett by a ridiculous 42-2 margin in strikes before finishing the fight with a vicious knockout in the opening round.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a dream come true so I\u2019m very happy,\u201d Vallejos said. \u201cIt was a lot. I have to tell you, I was a bit nervous this week. Because a lot was riding behind this. There were a lot of people behind me. A lot of people supporting me, sending messages, everything. I was really surprised with all the support I got from Chile, from Uruguay, from everywhere not just Argentina, so I was very happy.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people were behind me on this one so I\u2019m very happy for all of them. To give them a great show and also for my family and very happy with the win.\u201d<\/p>\n
The win not only moved Vallejos to 4-0 in the UFC while likely earning a spot in the top 15 rankings, but he\u2019s also going home with an extra $100,000 after being rewarded with a Performance of the Night bonus.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s actually his second post-fight bonus in a row but a first under the new format where fighters are earning $100,000 for Performance of the Night or Fight of the Night, which started in 2026. Vallejos was understandably excited to hear that news but don\u2019t expect him to start blowing the money just because he can.<\/p>\n
Instead, Vallejos says he wants to invest the money for his future both financially and when it comes to his fight career with hopes to build a gym near his home in Argentina.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost, I\u2019m going to buy some food,\u201d Vallejos said with a smile. \u201cOf course, obvious but also listen, I want to invest the money. I want that money to grow but there\u2019s one thing I want to do is build a gym in Mar del Plata, Argentina.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to do something, I want to get something that was never done before, to actually have a full camp out there. I want to give it a little grain of sand to this project, to having new techniques, having new equipment, having new skills developed out there and a little gift to Argentina so we can grow MMA down there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Vallejos wasn\u2019t in a rush to get to the top of the featherweight division, but after knocking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-542593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}