Damian Pinas wants Baisangur Susurkaev at UFC 335 on Dec. 12, and he’s already talking like the contract is signed.
Pinas (11-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) told MMA Junkie that if Khamzat Chimaev’s unbeaten teammate still wants the fight, the UFC can send over the paperwork for T-Mobile Arena. A day earlier, on Oct. 15, he posted on X that he expects the matchup to happen in Vegas on Dec. 12, though he wasn’t feeling generous with the spelling, and he turned Susurkaev’s last name into a crude pun along the way. Bloody Elbow framed it as Pinas suggesting the bout is booked. Nothing in the reporting shows an official UFC announcement, so for now this is a fighter saying it, not the promotion.
The feud goes back to June. Pinas called out Susurkaev (12-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) right after knocking out Cesar Almeida at UFC 329. That went nowhere. Then last week Susurkaev took his own shot, claiming he had a fight lined up after Pinas got scared off from facing him.
View post on X
Pinas tells it the opposite way.
“I moved from Susurkaev because he wasn’t accepting the fight,” Pinas said. “He didn’t want the smoke. So that’s why I say, ‘OK, move forward. Let’s go to a top 15.’ But if he still wants the smoke, let the UFC send the contract. Let’s get it booked. Let’s fight 12th December. Let’s get it.”
Moving forward has gone fine for him. Earlier this month at UFC 332, Pinas put Andrey Pulyaev away in the first round, another brutal early finish for a guy who goes by The BabaYaga in his X display name.
Susurkaev hasn’t been coasting either. He finishes people too, and his most recent outing was a choke on Djorden Santos at UFC 328. Pinas isn’t buying the hype on the record.
“People can beat him. I can beat him, easy,” Pinas said. “He got a few lucky fights. All the fights he’s won, he was losing.”
View post on X
He added that he wants to show people Susurkaev is beatable, and that with him in the other corner there won’t be any late comeback to bail the prospect out.
Pinas’ dream list is bigger than this. He named Israel Adesanya and top contender Brendan Allen as the fights he really wants. But he said Susurkaev in Vegas would suit him fine, and so would anybody else the matchmakers hand him.
“Any opponent they can give me. Anyone going to get it,” he said.
My take: book it and stop letting these two argue about who ducked whom through reporters. Both guys are 3-0 in the UFC, both finish fights, and one of them has Chimaev’s camp behind him while the other is calling a 12-0 record a string of lucky breaks. Saying a guy was losing every fight he won is a great line on fight week and a dangerous one if you get choked in the second round. UFC 335 is Dec. 12 at T-Mobile Arena, roughly eight weeks out, which is plenty of time for the UFC to make Pinas’ X post official.
