Ryan Kuse has reached the UFC, the payoff for a six-year climb that wound through Titan FC main events, cancelled bouts and one long stretch of silence. The featherweight from Pembroke Pines in Broward County is now in the sport’s biggest promotion after a stop-start rise that almost never stayed on track long enough to finish the job.
That is why his name is drawing searches now. Kuse, 32, is a five-foot-nine featherweight who has also fought at bantamweight and carries a nine-win, two-loss record into the UFC. He has six wins by stoppage, a bare-knuckle kimura on his ledger and a reputation that matches his nickname, Third Street Savage. At The Goat Shed in Wynwood, where he trains under Asim Zaidi, he has spent years sounding less like a prospect protecting an image than a fighter who expects a fight to turn ugly.
“I became a 100% martial artist, but I’m still with that street attitude and that mentality where I’m ready to go in there, I’m ready to slug it out and I’m ready to put my fist through that man’s face,” Kuse said. That edge has been part of the selling point from the start, and it helped him build a regional résumé that stretched back to a first-round rear-naked choke win at Iowa Challenge in February 2013. He lost by armbar two months later, then resurfaced in Florida in early 2018 and put together a run through Combat Night and Xtreme Fighting Nation before representing Team USA at the IMMAF World Championships in November 2019.
The road from there did not move in a straight line. Elaman Shalkimbekov knocked Kuse out in the third round at those IMMAF World Championships, and when he turned pro in August 2020 at age 26, he still had to prove the early promise was real. He did that fast, beating Earnest Walls by first-round punches in his debut, then Damian Attie by decision, Amir Kazemi by second-round TKO and Rob Fuller in 94 seconds in 2020. By the time he stopped Jamal Johnson in the first round at Titan FC 74 in March 2022, he had six pro fights, five finishes and zero losses.
Then the path bent. Leonardo Morales outpointed Kuse at Combate Global in November 2022 for his first pro defeat, and a botched weight cut later cost him a Titan FC 79 booking. Fights also fell off the calendar at Fury FC, a frustrating stretch that turned a clean run into a series of interruptions. Kuse answered again in April 2024, when Cameron Smotherman beat him by split decision in Houston, before Kuse beat Kevin Natividad over three rounds at 135lbs at LFA 220 in October 2025.
That final rebound is what makes the UFC move feel earned rather than abrupt. Kuse did not arrive by skipping the hard parts. He came through them, and the unresolved question now is not whether he belongs in the UFC but who will meet him first and how long it takes before that street attitude meets an octagon reality.
