Fast facts
- Division: Featherweight (145 pounds)
- Record: 25 professional wins; 13-13 with one no contest in the UFC
- Nationality: American, of Samoan and Native Hawaiian descent
- Team/gym: Team Alpha Male, Sacramento (joined in 2009)
- Notable wins: Cub Swanson, Dennis Bermudez, Myles Jury, Hacran Dias, Lucas Almeida, Sheymon Moraes, Gabriel Benítez
Two weeks. That was all the notice Andre Fili got for his UFC debut in October 2013, and he wasn’t even in a featherweight camp. He was preparing for a welterweight fight in another promotion when the call came to replace an injured Charles Oliveira against Jeremy Larsen at UFC 166. He couldn’t make 145, so the bout went ahead at a catchweight. He stopped Larsen by TKO in Round 2 anyway.
Thirteen years and 27 UFC fights later, the man is still answering the phone.
Where he came from
Fili was born Andre Riley Givens on June 25, 1990. The house he grew up in was violent. Both of his parents were violent with each other and with their kids, and his father served time in jail on multiple occasions, which left his mother raising the children alone. By his teens Fili was going out looking for street fights.
In 2009 he moved to Sacramento. He was still on probation when he walked into Team Alpha Male and started training mixed martial arts, and by December 12 of that year he was a professional, stopping Anthony Motley by TKO in his debut. His first four wins all came by TKO. His first loss, to Strikeforce veteran Derrick Burnsed, came via a knee injury, and he answered it with eight straight wins, including one over another Strikeforce vet, Alexander Crispim. That run carried him to the UFC at 12-1.
The fights that defined him
His second UFC fight was against Max Holloway at UFC 172 in April 2014. Fili lost by submission in Round 3. Holloway, per MMA Junkie’s pre-event numbers, now holds the most wins in UFC featherweight history with 20, so Fili’s early education came from the best possible teacher.
What followed was a long stretch of trading punches with the division’s deep middle and occasionally its future stars. He beat Felipe Arantes, got tapped by Godofredo Pepey in the first round, then flattened Gabriel Benítez in Round 1 at The Ultimate Fighter Latin America 2 Finale for a Performance of the Night bonus. Yair Rodríguez knocked him out in Round 2 at UFC 197. Fili filled in for an injured Brian Ortega and took a decision from Hacran Dias. He was the opponent for promotional newcomer Calvin Kattar at UFC 214 after Doo Ho Choi pulled out, and Kattar won on the cards.
The 2017 to 2019 run was his best. He beat Artem Lobov, edged Dennis Bermudez by split decision, dropped a split to Michael Johnson, outpointed Myles Jury on UFC on ESPN 1, and then knocked out Sheymon Moraes in the first round for his second Performance of the Night.
The weirder chapters came later. Against Daniel Pineda in June 2021, Fili accidentally poked him in the eye early in Round 2 and the fight was waved off as a no contest. In 2023, Fili himself had to pull out of a fight with Lucas Almeida because he needed emergency eye surgery. When the Almeida fight finally happened at UFC 296 that December, Fili finished him by TKO in Round 1. I love that sequence. The guy loses a whole booking to surgery, comes back, and closes the show early.
Then there’s Cub Swanson at UFC 303 in June 2024, the fight people still argue about. The judges gave it to Fili by split decision. According to the scorecard tally on his Wikipedia page, 13 of 15 media outlets had it for Swanson. It also won Fight of the Night, which is the part worth remembering, because both men showed up to fight and the crowd got its money’s worth regardless of who the judges liked.
How he fights
The numbers tell you he wins ugly and wins late. Fili has the most split decision wins in UFC featherweight history with five, and his August 2025 split over Christian Rodriguez tied him with Gleison Tibau and Sean Strickland for the most in company history. His nine decision wins at 145 are tied with Holloway, Alexander Volkanovski and Movsar Evloev for second-most in the division, behind only Swanson.
He also wrestles more than his reputation suggests. His 43 takedowns are the fourth-most in UFC featherweight history, and his 4:38:33 of total fight time ranks fourth in the division too. MMA Mania’s betting preview leaned on exactly that, arguing Fili holds a considerable edge if the fight with Kamaka turns into clinching and wrestling. He even tried pro grappling once, losing a split decision to Shane Shapiro at UFC Fight Pass Invitational 2 in July 2022. Of course it was a split.
Where he is now
The last two outings hurt. In March, Jose Miguel Delgado beat him by split decision at UFC Fight Night 269. In June, Fili stepped in for Giga Chikadze against Vinicius Oliveira at UFC Fight Night 279 and lost by TKO in Round 2, in a fight that still earned both men a $100,000 Fight of the Night bonus. MMA Mania called the stoppage brutal and noted it was only the fourth time in his career Fili had been finished by strikes.
That loss dropped his UFC record to 13-13-1. He’s 36. Short-notice replacements for Oliveira, Ortega, Lerone Murphy and Chikadze are scattered across that ledger, and he lost the Murphy replacement fight, a first-round knockout by Dan Ige in February 2024. You can read his .500 record as mediocrity. I read it as a fighter who almost never says no, and a promotion that keeps calling because of it.
What’s next
Fili meets Kai Kamaka III on Saturday, Oct. 10, at UFC Fight Night 290 (also billed as UFC Vegas 122) at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas. The main card streams on Paramount+ at 8 p.m. ET, under Brendan Allen vs. Christian Leroy Duncan.
It’s Fili’s 28th UFC featherweight bout, which puts him alone in second for appearances in the division, one behind Darren Elkins (29), per MMA Junkie. Kamaka (18-8-1, 2-3-1 UFC) is on his second UFC stint and 1-1 since returning in April. He beat Dakota Hope by split decision, then lost a first-round standing TKO to Luke Riley in July. MMA Mania noted he went 10-4 after his first UFC run ended in 2021, with a strong stretch in Bellator and PFL.
Fili opened as the favorite, listed at -155 by MMA Mania and -150 by MMA Junkie, with Kamaka at +130 and +125. Stadium Rant, writing for Yahoo Sports, tagged it a “potential featherweight barnburner” between two Hawaiian-bred veterans, and I’d put this one on my must-watch list over half the card.
Here’s the math that makes me grin. If Fili wins, and the judges split on it, he’ll hold the UFC record for split decision wins all by himself with six. Nobody would bet against him finding a way.
