{"id":606891,"date":"2026-04-14T19:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T19:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/606891\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T19:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T19:52:12","slug":"38-fight-mma-veteran-ex-champion-asks-ufc-boss-dana-white-for-ufc-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/606891\/","title":{"rendered":"38-Fight MMA Veteran &#038; Ex-Champion Asks UFC Boss Dana White for UFC Opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"4w\">A former Bellator and RIZIN champion got the chance to chat with UFC CEO Dana White last weekend at UFC 327. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"4z\">Taking place at the Kaseya Center in Miami, FL, UFC 327 was headlined by a fight for the promotion\u2019s vacant light heavyweight title, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/fannation\/mma\/news\/ufc-champ-carlos-ulberg-update-injury-ufc-327-title-fight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">saw Carlos Ulberg overcome what appeared to be a significant knee injury<\/a> in order to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/fannation\/mma\/news\/ufc-327-jiri-prochazka-vs-carlos-ulberg-free-live-stream-results-highlights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">stop former titleholder Ji\u0159\u00ed Proch\u00e1zka with strikes<\/a> in the opening round. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"52\">The rest of the card <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/fannation\/mma\/news\/ufc-hall-of-famer-cub-swanson-retires-jaw-dropping-knockout-ufc-327\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">produced plenty of action to keep the Miami fans entertained <\/a>throughout the night. In one of the card&#8217;s most highly-anticipated matchups, Aaron Pico secured his first UFC win over Patricio Pitbull in a battle between former Bellator stars. <\/p>\n<p>Juan Archuleta Meets With Dana White At UFC 327<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"58\">Pico and Pitbull weren\u2019t the only Bellator veterans at the Kaseya Center on Saturday night, as the promotion\u2019s former bantamweight titleholder Juan Archuleta was also in attendance and shared a photo of himself with White on social media. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5f\">As noted in his caption accompanying the photo, Archuleta previously held bantamweight belts in top Japanese promotion RIZIN as well as Bellator, and the MMA veteran has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?client=firefox-b-1-m&amp;q=archuleta%20ufc%20mmako%20si\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">actively campaigning for an opportunity in the UFC <\/a>dating back to last year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Spaniard&#8221; Held Titles In Both RIZIN &amp; Bellator<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5l\">Boasting a 31-7 record, Archuleta began his professional MMA career in 2013 and went 5-0 before being submitted in his lone appearance for World Series of Fighting in 2015. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5o\">Archuleta followed up the first setback of his career with a lengthy winning run that saw him win and defend multiple regional MMA titles before joining Bellator in 2018. After coming up short in a featherweight title shot against the aforementioned Pitbull, \u201cSpaniard\u201d won the vacant Bellator bantamweight belt by defeating Patchy Mix in 2020 before he relinquished the title to Sergio Pettis the following year. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01kp6mq5qvvy9yqpt6vz.jpg\" alt=\"Juan Archuleta (blue gloves) celebrates after his win over Eduardo Dantas (not pictured) during Bellator 222 at Madison Squar\" title=\"Juan Archuleta (blue gloves) celebrates after his win over Eduardo Dantas (not pictured) during Bellator 222 at Madison Squar\" width=\"4304\" height=\"2869\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"5y\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Juan Archuleta (blue gloves) celebrates after his win over Eduardo Dantas (not pictured) during Bellator 222 at Madison Square Garden. Archuleta won the fight. | Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"62\">After defeating UFC veteran Enrique Barzola and taking a split decision over Soo Chul Kim in the first Bellator vs. RIZIN event, Archuleta fully made the jump over to RIZIN in 2023 and won the promotion\u2019s vacant bantamweight title later that year. The 38-year-old was stopped by current UFC fighter Kai Asakura in his first title defense and closed out his RIZIN run with three-straight losses.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01jqs0trefqpeskpkqv2.jpg\" alt=\"Juan Archuleta and Kai Asakura at RIZIN 45.\" title=\"Juan Archuleta and Kai Asakura at RIZIN 45.\" width=\"1498\" height=\"998\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"6c\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Juan Archuleta and Kai Asakura at RIZIN 45. | (RIZIN FF)<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">Archuleta returned to the win column last summer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/fannation\/mma\/news\/bellator-rizin-juan-archuleta-mma-knockout-of-the-year\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">with a stunning knockout of Dennis Linton<\/a> to win the BORROKA featherweight belt before he also submitted UFC veteran Jose Johnson in his first title defense, and he was scheduled to return to RIZIN on New Year\u2019s Eve to face Suguru Nii before withdrawing from the event due to visa issues. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Bellator and RIZIN champion got the chance to chat with UFC CEO Dana White last weekend&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-606891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606891","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=606891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}