Kyler Phillips built his reputation by doing things that do not look standard for a Bantamweight. A lifelong martial artist with an unusually broad base, he started jiu-jitsu as a small child and grew into the kind of fighter whose movement, variety and timing shaped the nickname The Matrix. His road has also included real interruptions, from school bullying and developmental setbacks to cancelled fights and a suspension, which makes his career feel less like a straight climb and more like a series of resets.<\/p>\n
What to know in 60 seconds<\/p>\n
Kyler Phillips is an American Bantamweight born in Torrance, California on 12 June 1995.
\n His nickname, The Matrix, came from his father, who told UFC.com he gave it to him in middle school because his martial arts were becoming \u201cmulti-dimensional\u201d.
\n Phillips began jiu-jitsu at three years old, was competing in pankration by 12 and had his first MMA fight at 16.
\n He reached the UFC after regional success, a 46-second win on Dana White\u2019s Contender Series and a stint on The Ultimate Fighter 27.
\n He is scheduled to fight Charles Jourdain on 18 April 2026 at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg, Canada.<\/p>\n
Kyler Phillips\u2019s background<\/p>\n
Phillips was born in Torrance, California, and much of his early identity in the sport seems to come from family influence. UFC and pre-UFC profiles<\/a> consistently trace his start back to childhood, while a 2019 profile also noted his wrestling background at Temecula Valley High School before his professional career took shape in Arizona.<\/p>\n There are also a few revealing details away from competition. UFC.com\u2019s 2024 feature<\/a> noted that Phillips dealt with bullying as a child, describing a period when he was a third grader being picked on by an eighth grader. That matters because it places combat sports in his life early as something more personal than career planning. It also fits with the way his story is usually told: not as a sudden switch into MMA, but as a long process of learning how to deal with pressure, attention and adversity from a young age.<\/p>\n Finding combat sports<\/p>\n Phillips has been unusually clear on where his martial arts life started. Speaking to UFC.com, he said: \u201cHe put me in jiu jitsu at three years old at the Gracie Academy.\u201d Official UFC profile material also says he \u201cfell in love with the arts around 12\u201d, and other early background reports say he was already taking pankration bouts at 12 and had his first MMA fight at 16. That is a very early start even by modern MMA standards.<\/p>\n That background helps explain why Phillips has never been presented as a pure boxer, wrestler or grappler. His pre-UFC background also included school wrestling and freestyle\/Greco experience. The point is not that he came from one perfect pipeline. It is that he built a broad technical base early, which is exactly what his nickname came to represent.<\/p>\n Turning pro and the road to the UFC<\/p>\n Phillips turned professional after an amateur path that had already started unusually young, and he built early momentum on the regional scene. A key checkpoint came at LFA 13, where he beat Jonathan Quiroz by unanimous decision. Soon after that came a 46-second stoppage of James Gray Jr on the first season of Dana White\u2019s Contender Series. The win was emphatic, but it did not immediately earn him a UFC contract, which is an important detail in his story because it forced him to keep building rather than arriving all at once.<\/p>\n Instead, Phillips moved into The Ultimate Fighter 27, where he lost to eventual season winner Brad Katona. That was followed by the first official loss of his professional career, a split decision against Victor Henry in October 2018. He responded in 2019 with a head-kick stoppage of Emeka Ifekandu at LFA 59, a finish that re-established his momentum and helped push him to the UFC roster.<\/p>\n Key UFC milestones<\/p>\n Phillips made his UFC debut on 29 February 2020 and beat Gabriel Silva by unanimous decision in a bout that earned Fight of the Night. He followed that with a second-round stoppage of Cameron Else on 3 October 2020, collecting Performance of the Night. Those first two UFC appearances gave a clear first impression: Phillips was not just winning, he was doing so in ways that made the promotion notice him quickly.<\/p>\n Another important milestone came at UFC 259, where Phillips beat Song Yadong<\/a> by unanimous decision. In March 2024 he added a major veteran scalp with a unanimous decision over Pedro Munhoz at UFC 299. Between those wins, he also submitted Marcelo Rojo at UFC 271 and outpointed Raoni Barcelos <\/a>in August 2023. Taken together, those results show why Phillips has remained relevant in a very difficult division even when his progress has been interrupted.<\/p>\n Setbacks, injuries, suspensions, cancellations or controversy<\/p>\n Phillips\u2019s UFC run has not been smooth. In July 2021 he lost a majority decision to Raulian Paiva in a fight that later received Fight of the Night honours. After that came a run of disruptions: Jack Shore withdrew from a planned November 2022 bout because of a serious knee injury, and Phillips was later pulled from a March 2023 booking after an out-of-competition drug test flagged ostarine. Nevada ultimately issued a six-month suspension that expired on 22 July 2023.<\/p>\n Even after returning, the interruptions did not fully disappear. Said Nurmagomedov<\/a> withdrew from a planned August 2023 fight, which led to Raoni Barcelos stepping in instead. More recently, Phillips has dropped back-to-back decisions to Rob Font<\/a> in October 2024 and Vinicius Oliveira<\/a> in July 2025. None of that erases his best work, but it does explain why his career has felt stop-start at key moments.<\/p>\n Life outside the cage<\/p>\n Phillips has spoken about the family role in his development for years, and even smaller details support that picture. One MMA Junkie media-day<\/a> clip was built around Phillips explaining that his mother designed one of his suits, which says something about how involved his support system has been around fight week, not just in the gym.<\/p>\n Away from formal training, Phillips has discussed<\/a> mountain biking as a supplemental hobby on UFC Unfiltered. The same podcast feed also shows him talking about video games and ordinary downtime, which fits the broader sense that he is not trying to sell an exaggerated public persona. He has also spent stretches back with family in Temecula, including during the pandemic, when he said he was training on family land while away from the gym.<\/p>\n Professionally, the clearest non-fight anchor in his life is still MMA Lab in Arizona. Sherdog and UFC\u2019s gym coverage place him under John Crouch, with teammates from the same room including Sean O\u2019Malley<\/a>, Mario Bautista<\/a>, Benson Henderson and Jared Cannonier. Phillips himself has acknowledged how deep the team is, even when asked about the possibility of facing teammates in the future.<\/p>\n Current status (as of March 2026)<\/p>\n Phillips is scheduled to fight Charles Jourdain on 18 April 2026 at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg, Canada. The booking comes after decision losses to Rob Font and Vinicius Oliveira, so it marks an important chance for him to halt a two-fight skid and reassert himself in the Bantamweight division. Jourdain brings experience and home-country attention to the matchup, while Phillips enters with the more established UFC body of work at 135 pounds.<\/p>\n Kyler Phillips MMA Record and Fighter Stats<\/p>\n \n Name \n Nationality \n Weight Class \n Date of Birth \n Height Pro Record<\/a> \n UFC Record Recent Fight Record<\/p>\n \tDateEventOpponentResultMethod<\/p>\n \t19-Jul-25UFC 318Vinicius OliveiraLUnanimous Decision<\/p>\n \t19-Oct-24UFC Fight NightRob FontLUnanimous Decision<\/p>\n \t9-Mar-24UFC 299Pedro MunhozWUnanimous Decision<\/p>\n \t5-Aug-23UFC Fight NightRaoni BarcelosWUnanimous Decision<\/p>\n \t12-Feb-22UFC 271Marcelo RojoW3rd Round Triangle Armbar<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49 Explore: Fightomic Rankings<\/a> | Fightomic Bantamweight Rankings<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyler Phillips built his reputation by doing things that do not look standard for a Bantamweight. A lifelong…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":["post-569826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Kyler Phillips\n <\/p>\n
\n American\n <\/p>\n
\n Bantamweight\n <\/p>\n
\n 12 June 1995 (Age 30)\n <\/p>\n
\n 5\u20198\u2033\n <\/p>\n
\n 12-4. 5 wins by KO, 2 wins by submission<\/p>\n
\n 6-3. 1 win by KO, 1 win by submission\n <\/p>\n