Fast facts
- Division: Lightweight (155 lbs.)
- Record: 14-6-1 MMA, 4-5-1 UFC
- Nationality: English (born in Wolverhampton)
- Team/gym: Not listed in available sources
- Notable wins: Jack Grant (vacant Cage Warriors lightweight title), Cain Carrizosa, Kyle Nelson, Rolando Bedoya, Mandel Nallo
Jai Herbert spent 14 years as a scaffolder. That job paid his bills through a 9-1 amateur run, through his pro debut in 2015, through a BAMMA contract and a Cage Warriors title reign. He didn’t become a full-time fighter until the UFC signed him in January 2020, by which point he was 31 and had already won and defended a major European belt while clocking in every morning.
That’s the guy walking out for the co-main event of UFC Vegas 122 (also billed as UFC Fight Night 290) on Saturday, Oct. 10, at Meta Apex in Las Vegas. He’s 38 now. His opponent, Brazil’s Matheus Camilo, is 25. And per MMA Junkie, Herbert hasn’t put together a winning streak in seven years.
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From Wolverhampton to BAMMA
Herbert was born on 13 May 1988 in Wolverhampton, the heart of the Black Country, which is where the nickname “Black Country Banger” comes from. As an amateur he fought at welterweight, figuring a brutal weight cut wasn’t worth it at that level. Sensible. When the hometown football club Wolverhampton Wanderers launched its kit in August 2020, Herbert was part of it, which tells you how the city sees him.
He turned pro in 2015 and came out swinging: two straight second-round knockouts with Full Contact Contender, then a four-fight deal with BAMMA. His promotional debut at BAMMA 23 on 14 November 2015 ended with Ben Bennett knocked out in the second round. Tony Morgan tapped to a second-round submission at BAMMA 25 the following May.
The first loss came in a lightweight title fight at BAMMA 27 on 16 December 2016, against future UFC fighter Rhys McKee. Herbert bounced back with a second-round knockout of Rick Selvarajah at BAMMA 29 in May 2017, and then the relationship with BAMMA fell apart. In late 2017 he went public with his frustration over the matchmaking. The promotion had overbooked its card, and Herbert’s scheduled fight got cut at late notice based on how many tickets the fighters had sold. He said he was done with BAMMA and took his business to Cage Warriors.
I love this part of his story. A working man who’d been grinding for years got bumped over ticket math, said no thanks, and went somewhere else to prove it.
The Cage Warriors run
He proved it fast. A unanimous decision over Erdi Karatas in the Cage Warriors 94 co-main in June 2018, then a first-round knockout of Joe McColgan at Cage Warriors 100 that December. In March 2019 he flattened Steve O’Keefe in the first round of the Cage Warriors 102 co-main. That earned him a shot at the vacant lightweight title, and he beat Jack Grant at Cage Warriors 106 to take it.
The defense came on 26 October 2019 at Cage Warriors 109, and Cain Carrizosa didn’t make it out of the first round. Add the Cage Warriors Academy South East lightweight title he’d picked up along the way and you had one of the hottest 155ers in Europe. That defense was the last stretch of back-to-back wins he’s had.
The UFC years: brutal, honest, never boring
His UFC debut was supposed to be a short-notice replacement fight against Marc Diakiese at UFC Fight Night: Woodley vs. Edwards in March 2020. COVID-19 wiped the event out. He finally debuted on 25 July 2020 at UFC on ESPN 14 and lost to Francisco Trinaldo by third-round knockout. Renato Moicano choked him out with a rear-naked choke in Round 2 in June 2021.
Two losses in, he needed something, and he got it in October 2021 at UFC Fight Night 196: a first-round TKO of Khama Worthy.
Then came the fight people still bring up. Herbert was booked against Mike Davis at UFC Fight Night 204 on 19 March 2022, Davis pulled out for personal reasons, and the replacement was Ilia Topuria. In the first round Herbert caught him with a head kick that put him on the canvas. Topuria got up and knocked Herbert out in the second. Herbert lost, but he’s on a short list of people who’ve dropped Topuria, and he did it on a fight he’d originally signed up for against someone else.
Since then, the pattern MMA Junkie flagged has held: never two wins in a row, never two losses in a row. A unanimous decision over Kyle Nelson in July 2022. A majority draw with Ľudovít Klein at UFC 286 in March 2023, in a fight that saw a third-round point deduction for multiple groin strikes. A unanimous decision loss to Farès Ziam that July. A unanimous decision win over Rolando Bedoya at UFC on ABC 7 in August 2024. A split decision loss to Chris Padilla at UFC Fight Night 255 in March 2025.
Then Winnipeg. On 18 April 2026 at UFC Fight Night 273, Herbert stopped Canada’s Mandel Nallo by first-round TKO, in Nallo’s home country.
The style
MMA Mania’s X-Factor preview nails both sides of him. The columnist wrote that he has a soft spot for fighters like Herbert, “gritty and technical veterans who don’t quite have the athletic chops to become top contenders,” and called him “a necessary cog in UFC’s machine” for testing prospects. The same piece is blunt about the risk: “Herbert is a bit of a glass cannon.”
The record backs up both halves. He’s rangy, he works behind jabs and kicks, and he can end you early (Worthy, Nallo, a stunned Topuria). He’s also been stopped by Trinaldo, Moicano and Topuria. If you’re watching a Herbert fight, somebody’s probably getting hurt.
Saturday against Camilo
Camilo (11-3, 2-1 UFC) lost his UFC debut to Gabe Green in 2025, then rebounded with two straight wins, the big one coming in June when he knocked out Nazim Sadykhov in 91 seconds. MMA Mania described his first three UFC fights as wildly uneven, with flashes of sharp timing and stretches of low output.
The books like the kid. MMA Mania lists Camilo at -192 and Herbert at +148, while MMA Junkie has it at -185 and +155. The case for Camilo is simple: he’s 13 years younger and has the power to crack a fighter known to be crackable. The case for Herbert, per MMA Mania, is the deeper experience at a high level and an eight-inch advantage, with the columnist picturing Herbert jabbing and kicking from range and piling up volume as the rounds go on. That column picked Herbert by decision.
I’m with it. Herbert is a guy who held a title while working a full-time job and dropped a future star on short notice, and he’s walked into every UFC fight since 2021 trying to win two in a row. He gets his shot on the Paramount+ main card on Oct. 10, right before Brendan Allen and Christian Leroy Duncan close the night.
