Guilherme Pat and Steven Asplund left the octagon victorious at UFC Vegas 112, closing out the calendar for the promotion with wins over Allen Frye and Sean Sharaf, respectively, and the Brazilian thinks it just makes perfect sense to match them up against each other in 2026.
Pat won a decision in his debut, improving to 6-0 in the sport against a previously unbeaten opponent. Asplund demolished his opponent with 170 significant strikes landed in just under nine minutes of combat, scoring a TKO to earn extra $50,000 in bonus after an equally impressive 16-second Contender Series knockout in September.
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“He’s not a very experienced guy either,” Pat told MMA Fighting about Asplund. “Asplund, who also fought there, is an interesting guy, someone who’s on the same track as me. I think he’s the one on the card who’s closest to my level so it would be interesting to make that next fight. I think the promotion would be interested in matching that fight up. Let’s see what their next steps are.”
Pat said he wasn’t able to watch Asplund’s full fight just yet, but got a glimpse of the highlights and liked what he’s seen so far.
“[He has] a very interesting pace, different for a heavyweight,” Pat said. “He doesn’t stop throwing, keeps moving forward all the time, turns it into a hell of a war in there. It’s going to be good. His pace makes for a very open fight, no hugging. It’s going to be a real brawl, and you’ve got to be well prepared.”
The Brazilian also wanted a finish to cap off a perfect first night as UFC fighter, but credits Frye’s chin and gameplan — and his own octagon jitters — as the reasons why they went 15 minutes at the UFC APEX.
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“I really wanted it, wanted it like hell, but every time I hit that guy he would come in and grab me,” Pat said. “He was very resilient, he took some shots that made me think, ‘that’s over.’ But he would bend over, curl up, and keep taking shots to the head. I also noticed that, maybe because of the nerves, a lot of my punches were just grazing him. That’s why his face got pretty cut up too.”
“I’m very satisfied with what I was able to show there,” he continued. “I managed to keep it together even though I was very nervous. Debuting is really tough, a lot of new things. When I was watching the screen there in the warm-up area, [Jamey-Lyn Horth] finished [Tereza Bleda] really fast and I thought, ‘man, it’s almost time to go in.’ My heart started pounding. All that anxiety and nervousness is part of it. I managed to do what needed to be done in the fight and I’m very happy with the performance, and I’m sure I still have a lot, a lot to improve.”
