Sal Everett is getting his shot Tuesday night, and it comes with an awkward layer Dana White did not hide. White said he would have a really hard time being unbiased when Everett steps into the cage against Ozzy Martin on the Contender Series card at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas.
That makes Everett one of the more unusual names on the card: a 29-year-old former UFC security guard now trying to work his way into the promotion as a fighter. He is 4-0 as a professional, with all four wins coming in the first round, including a four-second knockout that already has people paying attention.
Everett said the boss’s feelings are not something he is carrying into the fight. “Yeah, it’s completely blocked out,” he said, adding that working around White over time helped him get comfortable. “I think that helps with working for him and over the years of just getting comfortable being around him,” Everett said. He also described White as someone he learned to read over years on the job, saying he used to be nervous around him and would sweat when they talked, but that he eventually came to see White as “human” and “no different from any of us.”
The matchup matters because this is not just another unbeaten prospect trying to stay perfect. Everett recently ended his employment with the UFC and is now chasing a place in the company’s welterweight division. White’s comment leaves open a simple but important question: if Everett wins, will the same man who admits he may struggle to be impartial be the one deciding whether the contract comes next?
Martin brings his own perfect record into the fight. The 24-year-old from New Hampshire is also 4-0, and he has finished every opponent he has faced as a professional. In July, he stopped his most recent bout with a 30 second knockout at Cage Titans 77, a reminder that Everett is not walking into a showcase.
Everett, though, is talking like a man who sees only one outcome. “By any means necessary, I’m getting that contract,” he said, and when asked what it would mean to earn the UFC’s backing, he did not soften it. “Hell yeah, that would be the best promotion I ever got in my whole life. I need this. That’s what’s up.” Tuesday night will decide whether that fight is enough to turn a former security guard into the UFC’s next welterweight call-up.
