Once upon a time in New York, Anthony Wint was hoping to make it big in the NFL with the Jets.
Wint, who played briefly for New York in 2018, took his biggest step forward in his burgeoning mixed martial arts career on Tuesday, stopping Matthew Adams via punches in just 34 seconds of their heavyweight bout to earn a UFC contract on the Dana White's Contender Series.
"They don't pay me by the hour," Wint told Laura Sanko shortly after his win, which saw him improve his MMA record to 7-0, finishing each of his last three fights by way of stoppage inside 40 seconds.
DWCS, which streams on Paramount +, features fights between prospects vying for contracts with the UFC.
White, the UFC president, didn't hesitate to present the 30-year-old heavyweight with a contract.
"You are a f------ tank, my friend," White said. "I didn't get to see much, but what I got to see was pretty nasty."
"Welcome to the UFC."
Wint predicted going into the fight that he would stop Adams (6-3) in one of the first two exchanges, and followed through on his prognostication.
"I played football my whole life. Not only football, linebacker," Wint said. "So I was used to lining up against 11 people, having 11 people against me and then dissecting a whole play in 40 seconds. Now I just gotta dissect a man in three rounds."
Though 40 seconds is a little long for an average football play, it's also been a distance Wint hasn't reached in quite some time in the cage. A chiseled 5-foot-11, 234-pounder, Wint could conceivably drop to light heavyweight (205), but so far he's made noise as a heavyweight.
The Florida International product was an undrafted free agent for the Jets in 2018, saw action in two games and was waived the following summer.
The linebacker hit the amateur MMA circuit in 2021, building a 3-0 record with each victory inside the distance. The heavyweight debuted professionally in 2023 with a second-round technical knockout win and rolled to the doorstep of the UFC on Tuesday night, when he wasted no time once again.
At the onset, Wint unloaded a savage trio of right leg kicks on Adams before pressing forward for a clinch, defending an Adams leg trip and wrestling him to the ground. Wint unleashed an avalanche of savage rights after taking Adams' back, sprinkled in a devastating left or two before referee Herb Dean called a stop to the fight and a start to Wint's UFC career.
