Rabindra Dhant kept Nepal’s flag in the frame at Road to UFC Season 5, stopping Kimbert Alintozon in the second round on Thursday at Galaxy Arena in Macau and moving into the semifinals. He dragged Alintozon to the canvas, settled into mount and then postured up to pour on ground strikes until the referee stepped in.
The win gave Nepalese fans in attendance plenty to cheer about, and it came with a piece of history attached: Dhant was the first fighter from Nepal to compete on Road to UFC. The opening round of the fifth season stretched across Thursday, May 28 and Friday, May 29, with fighters from across Asia-Pacific chasing a direct path to the UFC through the win-and-advance format. Dhant’s performance was the kind that turns a tournament bracket into a storyline, because one clean finish not only sent him through but also put Nepal on a stage it had not reached before.
Road to UFC is built around that kind of pressure. There is no room for a slow start or a cautious scorecard when each bout can end the entire run, and Dhant answered it with a second-round stoppage that left no doubt about where he stands in the field. For those who want a fuller look at how the matchup fit into the Macau card, see the background ahead of the fight in Rabindra Dhant Fight looms in Macau as Road to UFC opens Thursday, which framed the moment before he delivered it.
The result sends Dhant into the semifinals and leaves him one step closer to a UFC contract, with the tournament now shifting to the next round and the margin for error shrinking further. If he can keep fighting with the same control he showed in Macau, Nepal’s first Road to UFC entrant may not remain a footnote for long.
