Unbeaten finisher Damian Pinas silences doubters ahead of UFC 332 middleweight clash

Damian Pinas heads into UFC 332 on October 3 in Salt Lake City with a point to prove — and a record that is already doing much of the talking. The middleweight prospect faces Andrey Pulyaev having finished all 10 of his professional victories, nine by knockout and one by submission, after earning his UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series.

Back-to-back finishes inside the Octagon have shifted the way opponents and fans regard “The Baba Yaga”, and Pinas is acutely aware of the change.

“Yeah, since my last fight, everybody gave me more respect, more recognition; they didn’t count me out anymore because before that they were counting me out, now they put it on my name because I’ve been working hard to get so far in the year to the UFC… It’s amazing,” Pinas said in a pre-fight interview.

The 10-1 record tells one story, but Pinas insists there is a dimension to his game that has yet to surface in the UFC. His grappling, he says, remains a deliberate secret — one he is in no hurry to reveal.

“Now, my grappling area… Nobody saw my grappling,” Pinas added. “Everybody thinks that I don’t have grappling, but I keep it quiet… One day I will show you guys.”

For now, the knockout threat alone has been enough to reshape expectations around the young middleweight. Whether Pulyaev can break the finishing streak — or whether Pinas forces the stoppage for an eleventh time — will be answered when the pair meet at UFC 332.