Los Angeles — Bantamweight Benardo Sopaj came away from UFC 311 in Los Angeles on Saturday night with his first victory inside the UFC octagon.
A highly-spirited, action-packed fight at the Intuit Dome saw Sopaj earn a unanimous decision victory against The Ultimate Fighter 29 winner, earning that first W in the promotion in style.
“I really liked the fight, it was a war,” Sopaj (12-3) said following the bout, though he disagreed with the notion of it being a “back-and-forth” affair. “I don’t think it was back-and-forth. He really tried to catch me, but I saw everything. It was very hard for him to catch me. He kept coming, he’s a tough fighter, but he did no damage.”
For Sopaj, a Swede born in Albania, showing his conditioning was a key aspect of the bout, after that very attribute failed him in his promotional debut against Vinicius Oliveira.
“A lot of people were talking about my condition in the first fight, but I told them that it was short notice. In this fight, everybody saw that. Ricky, you know he has very good conditioning. He just moves forward, he don’t give up, he has a high pace, but he got more tired than me.”
For the rest of 2025, Benardo Sopaj mainly wants to stay busy. “I want to have as many fights as possible this year. I want three more this year, I want to be active,” he told media outlets including Cageside Press. “Because I want to take the belt very fast.”
Sopaj also spoke of the long wait for the Turcios fight to happen, after his opponent was forced out of a date in November due to medical issues on weigh-in day.
“I don’t care. It was a very long camp, I can say, but it doesn’t matter. I show up every time. It doesn’t matter if the fight got cancelled, it doesn’t matter. I just need a date. That’s it.”
Watch the full UFC 311 post-fight press conference appearance by Benardo Sopaj above.
