The Rookies: UFC Fight Night 235

Ultimate Fighting Championship brass puts out BOLOs for heavyweights like Thomas Petersen.

The 6-foot-1, 260-pound former Legacy Fighting Alliance titleholder will make his promotional debut opposite Jamal Pogues as part of the UFC Fight Night 235 undercard on Feb. 3 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Petersen, who operates out of the Spartan MMA camp in his native Michigan, boasts an 8-1 record with eight finishes, seven of them by knockout or technical knockout. “The Train” has never gone the distance as a pro.

Petersen nailed down a UFC roster spot on Week 4 of Dana White’s Contender Series, where he put away “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 30 alum Chandler Cole with a keylock in the second round of their heavyweight tilt on Aug. 29. The 28-year-old drew the curtain 68 seconds into Round 2, though he was accidentally referred to as “Thomas Jefferson” by ring announcer Justin Bernard in the season’s most comical moment.

“Everybody’s job is tough,” Petersen said at the post-fight press conference. “We all make ’em, right? It was funny.”

Cole fired kicks at the body and legs but could not stay upright. Petersen executed two takedowns in the first round and fed his counterpart punches and elbows, foreshadowing what was ahead. Cole could not adjust quickly enough. Petersen followed a right uppercut into the clinch at the start of the middle stanza, then secured another single-leg takedown before shedding an attempted guillotine and moving to side control. From there, he advanced to a mounted crucifix, isolated the left arm and bit down on the keylock to force the tapout. Petersen found his inspiration from an unlikely source.

“I watched ‘Cocaine Bear’ last night,” he said. “I wanted to be like that bear once I got in. I was going to mug him. That’s how I felt. I couldn’t sleep last night, so that was the movie of choice.”

Petersen enters his UFC debut against Pogues on a three-fight winning streak, having effectively rebounded from his only career setback—an April 15, 2022 technical knockout loss to Waldo Cortes-Acosta under the LFA banner. Now that both men are in the UFC, Petersen admits a possible rematch down the road piques his interest.

“The time will come,” he said. “Whenever it happens, hopefully we meet at the belt, but I wish Waldo Cortes the best. I like his coach, and he’s a good man, too. Yeah, I’d like to fight him—I’d like to beat him—but I’ve got nothing bad to say about the guy.”

Factory X prospect Marquel Mederos joins Peterson as the only other UFC rookie on the card, as he confronts Landon Quinones in a three-round lightweight prelim. Medeiros has compiled an 8-1 record through his first nine professional assignments, with six wins via knockout or technical knockout. He secured his spot on the roster with a first-round stoppage of Issa Isakov on Week 10 of DWCS in October.

Isakov pursued clinches and takedowns but went nowhere with those efforts. Mederos flummoxed the Soko Training Center export with feints and stance switches, battered the lead leg with kicks and pieced together clean punching combinations. He caught Isakov with a knee to the head as he ducked in for a takedown, folded him where he stood and slammed the door with punches 4:09 into Round 1. It was a defining moment for Mederos.

“I can’t even explain it,” he said. “Words won’t do it justice.”

In his first test inside the Octagon, Mederos draws Quinones—a Kill Cliff Fight Club rep who finds himself on the rebound following a unanimous decision defeat to Nasrat Haqparast at UFC 293 on Sept. 9. The defeat snapped the former Titan Fighting Championship titleholder’s five-fight winning streak. Mederos foresees an extended run in the UFC, starting with his clash against Quinones.

“This is just the beginning,” he said. “I feel like when people get here, a lot of times they get to this point and are like, ‘Oh, the job is done.’ The job’s not done. It’s just starting, trust me. When I get to the top, then the job’s finished. Then we can have the roses, and we can pop the champagne.”