LAS VEGAS -- Malcolm Wellmaker was a 22-year-old pipe fitter living in Augusta, Ga. He wasn't particularly well-off financially, like many men his age he was going through relationship problems and, perhaps toughest of all, he was out of shape.
A little more than seven years from the day he decided to walk into Faglier's MMA in Martinez, Ga., Wellmaker is a UFC fighter.
He scored the most impressive win of the night on Tuesday at Dana White's Contender Series at Apex, knocking out Adam Bramhald with a blistering counter right hand. Bramhald left a lazy left hand, kind of a half-hook, half-job, out there and Wellmaker came over the top of it with a right.
Bramhald face-planted as Wellmaker coolly walked away, knowing nothing more was needed.
"He couldn't possibly have looked any better than he looked tonight," White, the UFC's CEO/president, said at the post-fight news conference.
Wellmaker and his team noticed that Bramhald had a tendency to get lazy with his left and leave it over there. So it was something they practiced frequently in the time leading up to the bout. He not only predicted he'd finish Bramhald, in some of his pre-fight interviews he said he'd do it with a right hand.
He looks like the modern-day Nostradamus after that call, but it was more a matter of the coaches doing their jobs in noticing a flaw in the opponent and drilling their fighter to take advantage, and the fighter being coachable and able to execute under the bright lights.
He's 8-0 now and on top of the world, though the competition will soon stiffen up greatly.
But on Tuesday, Wellmaker was calling it surreal even as he arrived at the post-fight news conference.
"It's still surreal, I'm telling you, man," Wellmaker said. "This was not in the cards for me. Seven years ago when I walked in that gym, you weren't going to point at me and say, 'He's going to be in the UFC,' because I was so far from it."
He had zero background -- no striking, no wrestling, no jiu-jitsu, no anything. When he was convinced by one of the coaches to try, he fully committed himself to the effort. He said he had to limit connections with friends and family sometimes because he was working a full-time job, often 12 hours a day, and had to find time to train after that.
"It's been a tough seven, eight years, man," Wellmaker said. "Like I said, it's a dream right now."
In the opening fight, the statistics all favored Jack Duffy in his bantamweight fight with Nick Piccinni, but the judges scored a split decision victory for Piccinni. White opted not to give either of them a contract and instead offered them the opportunity for a rematch on Week 10.
In a spectacular fight that began with Bogdan Grad literally sprinting out of his corner and charging at Michael Aswell at the opening bell, Grad won a split decision that could have gone either way. White said it was arguably the best fight in the history of the show.
He gave Grad a contract and said once the massive cut over Aswell's eye is healed, they'll bring him to the UFC as a replacement fighter if someone falls out.
Marco Tulio used a spinning kick to the liver to finish Matthieu Duclos and earn his contract. It was the first spinning kick KO in series history. And in the final bout, Andrey Pulyaev won a unanimous decision over Liam Anderson. White chose to give Pulyaev a contract, raving about his fight IQ.
Full Week 3 results
• Andrey Pulyaev W3 Liam Anderson, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27.
• Bogdan Grad W3 Michael Aswell, 29-28, 30-27, 28-29.
• Marco Tulio TKO2 Matthieu Duclos, strikes, 2:38.
• Malcolm Wellmaker KO1 Adam Bramhald, strikes, 2:29
• Nick Piccinni W3 Jack Duffy, 29-28, 29-28, 28-29.
* Contract winners are in bold.