Phumi Nkuta did not need much time to answer when the call came. The unbeaten flyweight accepted a short-notice fight against former ONE flyweight champion Adriano Moraes on the upcoming Rousey vs. Gina Carano card, after Muhammad Mokaev was unable to secure a visa in time to travel to the United States.

“You don’t got to ask me twice,” Nkuta said of the opportunity. “I’ve been itching for a fight for a little bit.” He said he is 11-0, that the money is already life-changing, and that he is scheduled to face Moraes on Saturday in the 125-pound division. “This is a guy that beat ‘Mighty Mouse’ [Demetrious Johnson]. I want that name on my record. So of course, I had to say yes,” Nkuta said.

The timing made the offer even easier to accept. Nkuta said he was already training and sparring when the fight came in, and that he had recently been helping Alex Perez get ready for his camp. He said he had probably fought about a month ago, or a month and a half ago, so he was not coming in cold. “I’m locked in at the gym,” he said, describing the matchup as the kind of test he has been waiting for. “I’m on a mission to fight the best competition in the world.”

Nkuta has long been billed as one of the top prospects outside the UFC, but he said the promotion never signed him, whether as a free agent, a short-notice option or through The Contender Series. At flyweight, his choices have also been narrower than most, since other major organizations do not offer his division in the same way. That has made this opening feel bigger than a simple replacement bout. MVP pays fighters a flat wage rather than show-and-win money, and Nkuta said that changes the math immediately. “The money for this fight is already life-changing,” he said.

He said the delay has not left him bitter. “For me, I was just taking it one day at a time,” Nkuta said. “Frustrated? No, but now that I got this fight is it rewarding? Absolutely yes.” He added that age matters in how a fighter absorbs setbacks. “I think if I was younger then I might be frustrated but for me it wasn’t really that frustrating because I love my life.”

The matchup now gives Nkuta the sort of name he has been chasing, and it gives Moraes a fresh opponent after the card was shaken up two weeks before fight night. Mokaev’s visa problem opened the door, Nkuta stepped through it, and on Saturday the unbeaten prospect will try to turn a late notice call into the biggest win of his career.