UFC runner Salhahuddin Everett fights for a contract after his dream nearly got him fired

Salhahuddin Everett has spent years working inside the UFC organisation; on 6 October he gets the chance to become part of it as a fighter. The unbeaten prospect, currently employed as a runner for the promotion, faces Ozzy Martin (4-0) on Week 9 of Dana White’s Contender Series with a UFC contract at stake.

Everett’s path to that bout is one of the more unusual in recent MMA memory. When he first applied for a position with the UFC in 2019, the director of security asked the standard interview question about his five-year plan. Everett answered honestly — he wanted to be a UFC fighter. The job offer never came.

“I actually applied for the UFC in 2019 and didn’t get the job,” Everett told Spinnin’ Backfist. “I remember telling the director of security — he asked me where I would see myself in five years — and I told him, ‘Fighting for the UFC.’ And he actually didn’t give me the job for whatever reason. A year and a half later, or two years later, I wound up working for them.”

Everett eventually joined the company through a third-party security agency before moving into a full-time runner role — the staff position that keeps him closest to the action on event nights.

Inside the cage, his record is spotless. Everett, nicknamed “Bundy”, has finished all four of his professional opponents in the first round and posted a perfect 4-0 amateur record before turning pro. The consistency of those finishes will be tested against Martin, who is equally unbeaten heading into Tuesday’s bout.

Should Everett win and earn a contract, he would become the first UFC employee to cross over into the fighter roster through the Contender Series — a detail that gives the bout a storyline the promotion rarely needs to manufacture.