Anthony Wint went into UFC Sacramento with a perfect record and a short runway to prepare, and by the time he walked away with a first-round finish, he’d also admitted something that most heavyweights would rather keep quiet: he had no idea how to get out of a kimura.
The submission attempt came from Terrance Chatman, who was making his own promotional debut on the same card, having skipped the Contender Series route entirely. Wint, by contrast, had only signed his contract a little over a week earlier after impressing on DWCS.
That turnaround left him with barely any time to prepare a full game plan, and it showed in one uncomfortable stretch of the opening round.
The pace started cautiously, with both heavyweights working behind feints before Wint found room for a heavy leg kick to open the scoring. Roughly ninety seconds in, he changed levels and found a takedown, driving in deep on the attempt. Chatman’s takedown defense held up well in the opening exchange, but Wint stayed patched onto him and eventually converted with a single leg, putting Chatman on his back.
From there, Chatman went to work off the bottom, isolating an arm and locking up a kimura. For a moment it looked like the newcomer might steal the moment away from the more experienced pro, but Wint refused to give in, relying on raw strength to ride out the pressure and eventually free himself, taking a stronger position on top.
With under a minute left in the round, he shifted into an arm-triangle choke. The angle was not textbook, but the squeeze was more than enough, and Chatman went out at the 4:29 mark of round one.
Speaking afterward about the moment Chatman had him in trouble, Wint didn’t dress it up.
“What defense? I didn’t know what I was doing,” he said. I just said you’re gonna keep cranking it and I’m not gonna tap or you’re gonba break my arm.”
That answer alone would have been a fun soundbite on its own, but Wint used it as a springboard to talk about where he goes from here. With his win bonus and a new contract in hand, he no longer has to split his time between a job and the gym, something he made clear is about to change how he trains.
“I got a great coach,” he said. “We’re gonna work on it. We’re gonna work on leg locks, we’re gonna work on all that stuff.”
He continued, pointing to the grind that came before this moment.
“Before I was training, I was working, and I was going back to training. Now I just can train all day, and I got some great coaches that’s important to me.”
Asked about facing a similar scramble down the road, Wint sounded confident that the gap in his skill set would not last long.
“I’m gonna get out of that a lot quicker next time.”
For a heavyweight who is now 8-0 with seven finishes, the willingness to admit a hole in his skill set says as much about his mindset as the finish itself.
