Richie Miranda spent five rounds getting told he was the wrong man in the wrong building. Then he stopped an undefeated champion with a minute and change left on the clock and walked out with the belt.<\/p>\n
That night in Sioux Falls is the shorthand version of his career. The longer version involves a junior college wrestling room, a criminal justice degree in Nebraska and a fighter who did not throw a professional punch until he was 26.<\/p>\n
The Lowdown<\/p>\n
Born 12 August 1994. Mexican-American, born and raised in Santa Ana, California, and still fighting out of Orange County. Five foot nine, 155 pounds, Lightweight. Nickname: El Machete. Professional record of 13-1 with five knockouts and three submissions, and a seven-fight win streak that has not been interrupted since April 2023. Former LFA Lightweight champion with two defences. Purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. A wrestler by trade who finishes with his hands.<\/p>\n
Signed by the UFC in the summer of 2026 to face Brazilian knockout artist Manoel Sousa.<\/p>\n
Segerstrom, and the Long Way Round<\/p>\n
Miranda wrestled for Segerstrom High School in Santa Ana from 2008 to 2012, then carried on at Santa Ana College, where he became a two-time All-American at 149 and 157 pounds. That is a serious junior college career, and it earned him a move to the University of Nebraska-Kearney for two more seasons on the mat at 165 pounds.<\/p>\n
Nebraska is where the sport found him. While finishing a bachelor\u2019s degree in criminal justice and political science, Miranda walked into Kearney Combat Sports and started training mixed martial arts under Richard Barajas. He has laid out that path himself on his own fighter bio<\/a>, from the high school room through to the gyms he works out of now.<\/p>\n He was in his mid twenties by the time he committed. Most of his eventual UFC contemporaries had a decade of cage time by then.<\/p>\n Amateur Nights and a Cage Warriors Cameo<\/p>\n Miranda started competing in 2018 and turned professional in 2021. The early run was brutal and brief: a knockout of Jordan Timbal in February 2021, another over Isaiah Culpepper at a Fight Club OC show in August, then a rear-naked choke on James Lynch inside 91 seconds at Cage Warriors 130 in October.<\/p>\n Three fights, three finishes, in eight months.<\/p>\n LFA came calling in 2022 and never really let go. He guillotined Devon Dixon at LFA 128, wrecked Elijah Harris in a round at LFA 140, then edged James Wilson on a split decision in December. Miranda had told Cageside Press before that Wilson fight that he was going in to take the kid out, and he was blunt about the version of himself he wanted the promotion to see. \u201cMachete comes to kill, and it\u2019s chopping time.\u201d<\/p>\n The One That Got Away<\/p>\n April 2023. Kegan Gennrich. Split decision, wrong way.<\/p>\n It remains the only loss on his record, and the only fight in his professional career that has gone against him in any fashion. He has not lost a round of momentum since. Derion Chapman was starched in 99 seconds at LFA 169. Kegan Agnew and Maycon Mendonca went the distance and lost every one of them.<\/p>\n Full Circle in Sioux Falls<\/p>\n The title shot was supposed to come in December 2024. Champion Richie Lewis pulled out injured, so Miranda main-evented LFA 198 against Hugo Oyarzun instead and took the decision while he waited.<\/p>\n When the rebooking landed at LFA 207 in April 2025, the odds were an insult. Lewis was 6-0, a decorated collegiate wrestler and a 10-1 favourite. The building was the same one where Miranda had made his LFA debut three years earlier, and he had written the goal down every year since.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a good wrestler. He\u2019s kind of well-rounded, but I\u2019m there to disrupt that,\u201d he told Cageside Press in the build-up. \u201cShow my style, prove that I\u2019m the better MMA fighter. Come out on top, beat him in all areas.\u201d<\/p>\n He weathered the wrestling early, turned it into a dirty boxing fight against the fence and drowned Lewis in ground-and-pound at 2:04 of the fifth round. Fight of the Night. The belt went back to Santa Ana, which had not produced a world champion in combat sports since Gilbert Melendez.<\/p>\n Holding It<\/p>\n The first defence, at LFA 215 in Ventura in August 2025, was the ugliest and best win of his life. Ilay Barzilay came in 7-0 and openly hunting a UFC contract of his own. Miranda dropped him and nearly finished it as the second round expired, then had to grind out three more rounds against a man who refused to break. Unanimous decision, and a champion who sounded faintly annoyed at himself afterwards.<\/p>\n \u201cThis whole time I wanted an early stoppage, but you know. My style is about putting fools down and that\u2019s what I had to do today,\u201d he said. \u201cAll five rounds.\u201d<\/p>\n The second defence took two minutes of actual work. At LFA 233 in Salamanca, New York, in May 2026, Robert Varricchio controlled the opening round before Miranda cracked him with a left hook early in the second and locked up a bulldog choke<\/a> at 1:02. It is not a submission you see finish a title fight. He got it in under a minute of grappling.<\/p>\n The Room in Orange<\/p>\n Miranda trains out of Bloodline Combat Sports in Orange, California, under longtime UFC Featherweight Cub Swanson<\/a>. He supplements it with boxing at Roybal Boxing under Dale Roybal, jiu-jitsu at Gracie Barra HQ with Philipe Della Monica and striking work with Anthony Murataya. Earlier in his California years he trained at Combat Submission Wrestling under Erik Paulson and Ben Jones.<\/p>\n Swanson\u2019s fingerprints are all over the pressure and the pocket work. And when Miranda grabbed the microphone at LFA 215, he made the chain of command clear: \u201cMy manager is waiting. Cub Swanson\u2019s waiting for the phone call!\u201d<\/p>\n Chopping Time<\/p>\n The nickname does the work. El Machete fights like something being swung rather than something being thrown, all forward pressure and short, chopping shots in tight spaces, and he has built a genuine finishing habit out of what started as a pure wrestling base. Seven of his 13 wins have come inside the distance.<\/p>\n He also does not pretend to be anything other than what he is. \u201cI don\u2019t listen to the outside noise. I\u2019m always in the underdog mentality,\u201d he said before the Lewis fight. \u201cExpect beautiful violence. Machete style and chopping time.\u201d<\/p>\n The Phone Finally Rang<\/p>\n Miranda got the call in the summer of 2026, and it came the way these things often do: fast, and with no notice at all. On 29 July, Heavy.com reported<\/a> that the LFA champion had been added to the UFC\u2019s 8 August card in Las Vegas opposite Manoel Sousa<\/a>, a Brazilian finisher who took a Performance of the Night bonus in his own promotional debut.<\/p>\n Ten days\u2019 notice against a man who knocks people out. For a fighter who spent three years shouting at Dana White through a camera lens, that is not a complication. That is a door.<\/p>\n Richie Miranda MMA Record and Fighter Stats<\/p>\n \n Name \n Nationality \n Weight Class \n Date of Birth \n Height \n Pro Record \n UFC Record Recent Fight Record<\/p>\n \tDateEventOpponentResultMethod<\/p>\n \t22-May-26LFA 233Robert VarriccioW2nd Round Bulldog Choke<\/p>\n \t22-Aug-25LFA 215Ilay BarzilayWUnanimous Decision<\/p>\n \t18-Apr-25LFA 207Richie LewisW5th Round TKO<\/p>\n \t6-Dec-24LFA 198Hugo OyarzunWUnanimous Decision<\/p>\n \t23-Aug-24LFA 190Maycon MendoncaWUnanimous Decision<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49 Explore: Fightomic Rankings<\/a> | Fightomic Lightweight Rankings<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richie Miranda spent five rounds getting told he was the wrong man in the wrong building. Then he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-834487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834487","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=834487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Richie Miranda<\/p>\n
\n American\n <\/p>\n
\n Lightweight\n <\/p>\n
\n 12 August 1994 (Age 31)\n <\/p>\n
\n 5\u20199\u2033\n <\/p>\n
\n 13-1. 5 wins by KO, 3 wins by submission\n <\/p>\n
\n 0-0\n <\/p>\n