Fast facts
- Division: Light heavyweight (No. 19 in the Knockout Daily rankings)
- Record: 31-13
- Nationality: Born in Ukraine, later took Russian citizenship
- Team/gym: Raty Team
- Notable wins: Alexander Gustafsson, Volkan Oezdemir, Ovince Saint Preux, Johnny Walker, Ryan Spann, Fabio Maldonado (Fight Nights Global title)
Some fighters build a career like a skyscraper, one careful floor at a time. Nikita Krylov built his like a guy who kept setting the scaffolding on fire to see if he could finish the job before it collapsed. For more than a decade the man has been one of the most reliable sources of chaos at 205 pounds, and on Saturday at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi he was on the wrong end of that chaos again. Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev caught him with a knee and punches in the first round, a result MMA Fighting had picked in its predictions the night before. Championship Rounds posted the finish on X within minutes of the UFC telling fans to tune in early.
That loss puts Krylov at 1-4 in his last five. So this is a good moment to look back at how strange and fun the whole ride has been.
View post on X
The kid from Krasnyi Luch
Krylov was born March 7, 1992, into an ethnic Russian family from Krasnyi Luch in Ukraine. His father competed successfully in Kyokushin karate, and Nikita started training it himself at 10. That base still shows up every time he throws a kick at somebody’s head with bad intentions.
He went pro in 2012, and his early record reads like a speedrun. He debuted on July 27, 2012, at West Fight 4 in Donetsk with a TKO of Alexander Umrikhin, then won 11 more fights over the next five months. Ten of those were submissions. Ten submissions in five months is a lot of guys tapping in a hurry.
Vladimir Mishchenko ended the streak by submission on December 29 at Oplot Challenge 22. Krylov bounced back by winning the Gladiators Fighting Challenge heavyweight tournament in Donetsk on January 19, 2013, with two quick wins, ran it back with Mishchenko in March, and got arm-triangled again. A month after that he stopped Gabriel Tampu at M-1 Challenge 38 in St. Petersburg. He was 15-2 and the UFC came calling.
He also had a gimmick. Krylov’s heroes, by his own telling, were Ilya Mate, Igor Vovchanchyn and Al Capone, and early on he fought under the nickname Al Capone. Before his fight with Francimar Barroso he swapped it for The Miner out of respect for Donetsk and its many working miners. Somewhere in there he also enrolled at Donetsk Law Institute, which means the guy choking people unconscious on Saturday nights was reading case law on weekdays.
Heavyweight nerves, light heavyweight fireworks
His UFC debut at UFC 164 on August 31, 2013, was rough. Soa Palelei stopped him in Round 3 of a fight where both men looked gassed after five minutes, and Krylov blamed nerves and the long trip from Donetsk to Milwaukee. Fair enough. Anyone who has flown that far and then had to fight a heavyweight gets a pass.
View post on X
Then he opened UFC on Fox 7 in January 2014 by head-kicking Walt Harris and finishing him in 25 seconds. Right after, he floated dropping to light heavyweight, and that move defined everything that came next.
His first fight at 205, against Ovince Saint Preux at UFC 171, ended with Krylov going for a guillotine and getting choked out by a Von Flue choke instead, which is the most Krylov way to lose possible. Then the finishes piled up: Cody Donovan by TKO in the last seconds of Round 1, Stanislav Nedkov by standing guillotine just over a minute in, Marcos Rogerio de Lima by rear-naked choke after surviving two guillotines of his own, Barroso by submission in Round 2, and Ed Herman by head kick 40 seconds into Round 2. Misha Cirkunov submitted him at UFC 206 in December 2016, and then he left.
The detour and the return
In February 2017 the news broke that Krylov was out of the UFC, which surprised plenty of people. He later said he chose not to re-sign, explaining that he wanted to sharpen his skills elsewhere and fight closer to home. Over at Fight Nights Global he went on a tear: a 53-second guillotine of Stjepan Bekavac, a TKO of Maro Perak, a 43-second knee knockout of former Bellator champ Emanuel Newton, and a second-round knockout of Fabio Maldonado for the FNG light heavyweight title. In June 2018 promotion president Kamil Gadzhiev announced Krylov was released so he could negotiate with the UFC again.
That second stint is where he became a real fixture of the division. He lost to future champ Jan Blachowicz by submission, then got his revenge on Saint Preux with a rear-naked choke at UFC 236. He dropped a back-and-forth split decision to Glover Teixeira, the first decision loss of his 32-fight career, and beat Johnny Walker on the cards. Losses to Magomed Ankalaev (decision) and Paul Craig (first-round triangle) followed.
Then came the best stretch of his career. He knocked out Alexander Gustafsson in the first round in July 2022 for a Performance of the Night bonus. He outpointed Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 280. And after falling ill on the day he was supposed to headline against Ryan Spann, forcing the UFC to scrap the main event, he came back two weeks later and triangled Spann in Round 1. Three straight wins over real names, and Krylov looked like a guy one more win away from a serious ranked fight.
View post on X
There’s no ducking the politics, either. Krylov is an open supporter of Donbass separatism and has said he would be first in line for a Luhansk People’s Republic passport if it ever got international recognition. While training in Kyiv he wore a uniform with the Russian flag, gym members called for action against him, and he moved to Moscow and became a Russian citizen.
The skid
A planned fight with Azamat Murzakanov at UFC 309 fell apart when Murzakanov withdrew, and the run since has been brutal. Dominick Reyes dropped him with a straight left and finished him in the first round at UFC 314 in April 2025. Bogdan Guskov stopped him in the first round in July 2025. He found one more vintage moment at UFC 324 in January, knocking out Modestas Bukauskas at 4:57 of Round 3, the second-latest finish ever in a three-round light heavyweight fight. Robert Whittaker then stopped him in Round 3 at UFC 329 in July, and Yakhyaev needed less than a round on Saturday.
Here’s my take. Krylov is tied with Mauricio Rua, Paul Craig and Anthony Smith for the fifth-most finishes in UFC light heavyweight history with eight, and he has never once fought like a guy protecting a ranking. That’s why he’s lovable, and it’s also why the last two years have hurt so much. A fighter who lives on the edge eventually gets caught there more often than he catches people, and three of his last five losses came inside the first round.
He’s 34, ranked 19th, sitting at 31-13, and no next fight has been announced. After Saturday, the 10 a.m. call times on the early prelims feel a lot closer than a title shot.
