Fast facts
- Division: Middleweight (185 pounds)
- Record: 17-5 (4-5 UFC, plus one no contest)
- Nationality: American
- Team/gym: Lives and trains in Tacony, Northeast Philadelphia
- Notable wins: Michel Pereira (KO, Round 1), Gerald Meerschaert (brabo choke, Round 1), Jamie Pickett (D’Arce choke, Round 1), Dustin Stoltzfus (unanimous decision), Michael Lombardo (Dana White’s Contender Series), two-time CFFC middleweight champion
The first training room Kyle Daukaus ever had was a basement in Tacony. He and his older brother Chris would watch UFC fights together, then head downstairs and grapple each other, two Northeast Philadelphia kids with no real instruction and plenty of stubbornness. Eventually they signed up for a grappling tournament with almost no formal training behind them. Both took second. That was enough. The brothers decided to try MMA, and both went on to fight in the UFC.
Kyle still lives in that neighborhood. He still trains there too. Born February 27, 1993, and a Father Judge High School alum, he’s 33 now and on his second run with the promotion, which is a stranger and more interesting place to be than his record alone suggests.
The heavyweight who wasn’t
After high school, Daukaus weighed somewhere around 260 pounds, and his MMA coach told him he’d need to take heavyweight fights. So he did. His amateur career went 5-5, the kind of record that doesn’t get anyone a phone call. Somewhere in there he worked his way down, first to 205, then to 185, where he’s competed ever since. I always want to know more about the coaches in stories like this one, the person who looks at a 260-pound kid and books him anyway. The sources don’t name that coach. Somebody in Philadelphia deserves a little credit.
The pro career started at AFL 53 with a first-round rear-naked choke of Dino Juklo. Then he submitted the next five men in front of him: Tyler Bayer, Kyle Walker, Elijah Gboille, Dustin Long and finally Jonavin Webb, who got caught in a brabo choke at CFFC 72. That choke would become his signature. He went to Dana White’s Contender Series 18 and beat Michael Lombardo by unanimous decision, the first time as a pro he’d needed the judges. Back at Cage Fury, he finished Stephen Regman and Nolan Norwood, both in Round 2, both with the brabo.
The first UFC run
His debut came on short notice on June 27, 2020, replacing the injured Ian Heinisch against Brendan Allen. Daukaus lost a unanimous decision. It’s worth a small smile now that Allen just choked out Christian Leroy Duncan in the fifth round of a UFC Vegas 122 main event, as Cageside Press recapped. Daukaus didn’t lose to a nobody.
He bounced back at UFC 255 that November, dominating Dustin Stoltzfus for a decision, then dropped another decision to Phil Hawes in May 2021. What followed was the strangest night of his career. Opening a new four-fight contract against Kevin Holland on October 2, 2021, Daukaus clashed heads with Holland early, and Holland was briefly knocked unconscious. Holland kept fighting. Daukaus finished him with a standing rear-naked choke. Then referee Dan Miragliotta went to the replay, decided the head clash had set off everything that followed, and turned the win into a no contest.
The rematch was booked for November 13, 2021. Holland pulled out hurt, Roman Dolidze stepped in, and then that bout fell apart over COVID-19 protocols in Dolidze’s camp. An April 2021 fight with Aliskhab Khizriev had already been scrapped the same way.
When he finally got a clean result again, it was a good one. Julian Marquez dropped off a February 2022 card, Jamie Pickett replaced him, and Daukaus took him out with a first-round D’Arce choke for his first Performance of the Night bonus. Then the floor gave way. Dolidze knocked him out in Round 1 that June. Eryk Anders stopped him by TKO in Round 2 that December. In late January 2023 it was announced that Daukaus had fought out his deal and the UFC wasn’t bringing him back.
Cage Fury, again
Plenty of fighters treat a release as an ending. Daukaus went home to the promotion that built him and started stacking finishes. He choked out Robert Gidron at the end of the first round at CFFC 120 in June 2023. That September he beat Gregg Ellis by decision to win the CFFC middleweight title for the second time. He submitted Sean Connor Fallon in Round 3 in February 2024 and knocked out Keanan Patershuk in Round 1 that June. Across both reigns he defended the belt four times, and his six middleweight title fight wins are the most in Cage Fury history.
He even took a pro grappling match with Anders at Fury Pro Grappling 8 on December 30, 2023, and lost a decision. In December 2024 he was made eligible for the Global Fight League draft and nobody picked him. By April 2025, every GFL event had been cancelled indefinitely, so maybe that was a favor.
The return
The call came in August 2025, when Marco Tulio withdrew from a fight with Michel Pereira at UFC Fight Night 257. Daukaus took it and knocked Pereira out in the first round, which earned him a second Performance of the Night. The guy known for chokes walked back in and won with his hands.
Three months later at UFC 322 he caught Gerald Meerschaert, a veteran who has seen every submission there is, in a brabo choke at 0:50 of Round 1. His Wikipedia record credits it as the fastest D’Arce choke submission in UFC history. He was also about to become a father of two. As of November 2025, he and his wife, Katharine Alaina, had a two-year-old son named Kai Alexander and were expecting a second, Kal Atlas, sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Both boys’ names were built around the initials KAD, shared by Kyle A. Daukaus and his wife.
The momentum hit a wall in 2026. Daukaus was booked against Vicente Luque for UFC 327 in April, then withdrew after getting moved to the UFC Freedom 250 card, where Kelvin Gastelum took the Luque slot. On June 14 he met Bo Nickal and was stopped by TKO in the first round. Cageside Press lists Daukaus among the names Nickal has stopped on his current run, and Nickal now has Joe Pyfer booked for December 12.
What’s next
MMA Junkie’s pre-event numbers have Daukaus at 17-5 overall and 2-1 since his August 2025 return. On Saturday, October 17, he faces Marc-Andre Barriault (17-11, 6-10 UFC) on the main card of UFC Fight Night 291 at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, a 185-pound bout on a card headlined by Joaquin Buckley and Mike Malott. The odds published by MMA Junkie have Daukaus at -225 and Barriault at +185.
Barriault is no gimme. He’s a Canadian fighting in Canada, and his UFC 260 stoppage at 4:56 of Round 3 is the second-latest finish in UFC middleweight history, per MMA Junkie, which tells you he’ll still be swinging when the horn is close. The Nickal loss was fast and ugly, and a middleweight who’s been knocked out by Dolidze, Anders and Nickal has to think about where he stands with the clock running. But Daukaus has already been cut once, gone home to Tacony, won a belt for the second time and fought his way back. Saturday’s prelims start at 5 p.m. ET on Paramount+, with the main card at 8.
