Las Vegas — Flyweight Marcos Degli earned a UFC deal on Week 7 of Dana White’s Contender Series this season, submitting Paris Moran at the Meta Apex on Tuesday.
It was the culmination of years of hard work, with the Brazilian putting the effort in on the regional scene at home.
“I’d been working so hard, and I said ‘what do I need to do?’ 13 straight victories, fighting the toughest guys in Brazil, I keep beating them up. And I was like ‘what else do I need?’” recalled Degli (15-3), speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press following the fight. “But I thought about this every day of my life, and I was like ‘what I need, what’s really going to happen is I’m going to be ready.’ And whenever they made the call, we knew we needed to be ready for it.”
Degli now hopes to make his promotional debut either at the end of 2026, or in early 2027.
“I like to be really active and fight tops, every five months. So we’d be ready December, early January. I think that whenever they make the call, I came here to work, I came here to get bread for the family. Just give me a call, and I’ll be ready to go.”
He also spoke to Cageside Press about how close he came to fighting Marwan Rahiki in Australia earlier this year. With Jack Jenkins hurt, Degli was an option; eventually, Ollie Schmid took the fight.
“I came really close to that, but I think it was a visa thing. I was kind of ready to take on the opportunity, even though he was a 145’er, I would have been able to fight him,” noted Degli. “It didn’t work out, but I thought ‘something better’s coming for me’ after that.”
Watch the full Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10 Week 7 post-fight press conference with Marcos Degli above.