Kody Steele told everyone afterward that he’d planned it in the locker room, and he delivered it in under four minutes. Steele dropped Noah Gugnon with a right hand and finished him at 3:54 of the first round Saturday at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi. It was the first finish of the night, and it came during the preliminary portion of the card.
Both men walked in needing the same thing. The UFC pointed out on X before the bout that each was chasing his second win in the promotion. Steele opened by mixing in wrestling and tried to get Gugnon down. According to MMA Fighting’s recap, the fight changed once Gugnon started landing his own shots. Steele did what he tends to do when someone hits him, which is hit back harder. The exchanges got loose, and the right hand landed before Gugnon’s did.
That instinct is the most interesting thing about Steele. He arrived in the UFC in 2025 with an accomplished grappling background, the kind of base that lets a fighter take a safe decision whenever he wants one. Instead he keeps choosing the pocket. On Saturday the choice paid off, and he sounded like a man who had been looking forward to it.
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“I was in the back, I was like, ‘I’m going to light this fool up with my right hand,’” Steele said in his post-fight interview. He followed that with a pitch for a payday: “Like I said, I want that money. I want that $100K, come on, put it in my bank account, let’s go.”
The win moves Steele to 9-1. His previous outing, in May, ended with an inverted heel hook on Dom Mar Fan, which is about as far from a right-hand knockout as a finish can get. He has now finished six of his last seven opponents, with submissions and strikes both on the list.
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The knockout drew quick reaction. Michael Chiesa, who knows a dangerous submission game when he sees one, wrote on X that Steele pairs real submission skills with technical striking and serious power, then added a prediction: “I see a number next to his name by the end of 2027.” The UFC’s own account posted the obvious follow-up and asked who should be next for him. No opponent has been named.
My take: I like Steele a lot, and I’d like it if everyone slowed down a little. Two UFC wins and a highlight clip are a good start, and too many prospects get rushed onto a hype train before they’ve earned it. The detail from this fight I’d keep is the stretch before the knockout, when Gugnon was landing and Steele let himself get pulled into a firefight while holding a grappling edge he never fully used. That worked against Gugnon. Against someone who hits harder and doesn’t fold, the heel hook from May is the weapon that keeps him unbeaten in the UFC. Chiesa’s 2027 timeline sounds about right to me, provided the matchmakers give him a real test next and he remembers he can wrestle.
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