Jefferson Nascimento

Nascimento's UFC debut held up until the closing stages of round three, when Abdullayev finally forced the stoppage with punches at 4:28. It ended Nascimento's unbeaten run, but the fact that the fight stretched that deep also fit a prospect who had already shown he could survive and work through long regional title fights.

Key moments

• The stoppage came with only 32 seconds left in round three.
• Nascimento lost his undefeated record by TKO punches at 4:28 of the third.
• The fight marked his UFC debut after the LFA title run.
• It was also his first welterweight fight since late 2022.

Nascimento defended his interim LFA lightweight title for the second time in one of the wildest wins on his recent record, rallying to stop Gian Maurente with a front kick to the body in round four. UFC.com's own notes say he was nearly finished in round three before the comeback, which makes this the clearest example of his resilience before the Baku call-up.

Key moments

• The fight reached the fourth round before Nascimento found the finish.
• He won by front kick to the body at exactly 2:00 of round four.
• UFC's pre-debut notes say he was almost finished in round three before coming back.
• It was his second interim LFA lightweight title defense before jumping to the UFC 29 days later.

Nascimento went the full 25 minutes with Makaev and won a unanimous decision in another LFA title fight, proving again that his game could hold together over a championship distance. That full-length win became an important part of the case for trusting him on short-notice opportunities later.

Key moments

• Nascimento completed all five rounds and won on the cards.
• The fight reinforced his comfort in extended title-fight pacing rather than only short bursts.
• It was part of the three-straight-title-fight run highlighted on his UFC page.
• The result kept his unbeaten record alive heading into 2026.

Nascimento needed only 24 seconds of the second round to put Costa away, a sharp contrast to the longer title fights that would come later in his career. The finish showed the early power threat was still there even before the five-round LFA run defined him more clearly.

Key moments

• Costa survived the first round but not the opening stretch of the second.
• Nascimento finished the fight with punches at 0:24 of round two.
• The stoppage kept his pre-title momentum moving on the LFA circuit.
• It was one of the quickest wins of his recent stretch.

Nascimento edged Gomes by split decision over three rounds, adding a close but useful win to the stretch that moved him into larger regional spots. It was not a highlight finish, but it did show he could get through a tight scorecard fight without giving away the result.

Key moments

• The fight went the full 15 minutes and required the judges.
• Nascimento left with a split decision rather than a clean sweep on the cards.
• That kind of narrow win helped build the decision experience he later used in title fights.
• It kept his unbeaten record intact in a less forgiving kind of matchup.

Nascimento made a fast impression in his first 2023 appearance by stopping Matheus Rocha with punches just 1:18 into round one at LFA 151. The result kept his unbeaten run moving and showed he could carry finishing danger into LFA before the later split-decision and title-fight stretch made him look more like a long-form operator.

Key moments

• The finish came 78 seconds into the opening round.
• It was Nascimento's first win of 2023 and pushed his record to 8-0.
• The stoppage came at lightweight after his previous two wins had been logged at heavier weights.
• He followed it later that year with a split-decision win over Italo Gomes and a quick TKO of Gabriel Costa.

Nascimento added another method to the unbeaten start by forcing a technical submission with an anaconda choke against Wemerson Vitor Fernandes Lima at Shooto Brazil 113. The second-round finish mattered because it came only months after a decision win in LFA, reinforcing that he could return to shorter-form aggression when the matchup opened up.

Key moments

• Nascimento secured the anaconda-choke finish at 3:12 of round two.
• It was his sixth straight professional win and his third by submission.
• The bout took place at welterweight in Shooto Brazil after his spring LFA appearance.
• He returned two months later and blitzed Matheus Rocha in his first 2023 fight.

Nascimento went the full three rounds with Uyran Carlos and took a unanimous decision in his first documented LFA win. That result matters because it showed he could bank a clean scorecard against a more experienced opponent before the later finishes and title bouts pushed him into bigger spots.

Key moments

• All three rounds were completed before Nascimento got the unanimous nod.
• The win moved him to 5-0 as a professional.
• It came less than two months after the first-round submission of Yuri Neles.
• This was one of the early distance wins that built his comfort in longer fights.

Nascimento stayed perfect by submitting Yuri Neles with a rear-naked choke in the first round at Favela Kombat 37. The finish kept his pace high between the 2021 Shooto win over Pedro Henrique Farias and the step back into LFA two months later.

Key moments

• The rear-naked choke ended the fight at 3:43 of round one.
• Nascimento improved to 4-0 with his second professional submission win.
• It was his first fight of 2022 before the LFA booking against Uyran Carlos.
• The victory kept his unbeaten record intact without needing the judges.

Nascimento went three rounds with Pedro Henrique Farias and earned a unanimous decision at Shooto Brazil 109, extending his unbeaten start to 4-0. It was a quieter win than some of his early finishes, but it widened the evidence that he could hold shape over a full fifteen minutes as well as close fights early.

Key moments

• The fight lasted the full three rounds and went unanimously to Nascimento.
• It pushed him to 4-0 as a pro.
• The bout came at welterweight on the Shooto Brazil main card.
• He opened the next year with a first-round submission of Yuri Neles.

Nascimento closed his 2020 schedule by outpointing Bruno Cardoso over three rounds at Shooto Brazil 106. After back-to-back stoppages earlier that year, the decision showed he was already capable of switching from aggressive finishing to measured round-winning when the matchup demanded it.

Key moments

• Nascimento went the full three rounds before getting a unanimous decision.
• The win took him to 3-0 as a professional.
• It came after consecutive stoppage victories over Daniel Santos and Marcio Francisco.
• This was his first recorded fight at lightweight after earlier wins at higher contracted weights.

Nascimento scored another stoppage in his second pro year by finishing Marcio Francisco with punches in round two at Shooto Brazil 101. The win followed his third-round TKO of Daniel Santos and quickly established that his unbeaten start was being built on more than one clean early burst.

Key moments

• The stoppage came 2:20 into the second round.
• Nascimento improved to 2-0 with back-to-back TKO wins.
• This bout was contested at a 174-pound catchweight on the Shooto Brazil card.
• He pivoted from this finish to a three-round decision over Bruno Cardoso later that year.

Nascimento needed almost the full fifteen minutes to break Daniel Santos, eventually getting the TKO with punches at 4:23 of round three in the MAC 1 co-main event. That mattered as an early sign of patience: he could finish, but he did not need an immediate blitz to keep control of a fight.

Key moments

• The stoppage came late in the third round at 4:23.
• It was Nascimento's first professional win by strikes.
• The result moved him to 2-0 four months after his debut submission.
• He followed it with another TKO over Marcio Francisco later in 2020.

Nascimento opened his professional career by submitting Marcelo Carvalho with a first-round keylock at Shooto Brazil 97. It remains one of the more unusual methods on his record and immediately established that the unbeaten run started with a real finishing threat rather than a cautious points-first approach.

Key moments

• The debut finish came at 2:58 of round one.
• Nascimento won his first professional fight by keylock.
• The bout took place on the Shooto Brazil 97 main card in Rio de Janeiro.
• He built from that debut into a 2020 stretch with consecutive TKO wins.