A former Jet is taking flight… in the UFC.
Ex-Jets linebacker Anthony Wint earned a UFC contract after defeating Matthew Adams in a heavyweight bout on “Dana White’s Contender Series.” Wint took down Adams via TKO 34 seconds into the first round of their Tuesday night fight, delivering a flurry of punches to his opponent.
Wint’s success has already won over UFC president Dana White, who told reporters after DWCS 87 that the former football player has already been telling him to get him onto an upcoming card.
“Wint is fun. This guy is all over me,” White said, per MMA Junkie. “He says, ‘I’m not leaving Las Vegas until you guys get me a fight,’ so probably put him on [UFC] Sacramento. I love guys who want to turn around quick and fight again.
“When you come into the Contender and you do well and you get that pop, staying active is the best thing you could do.”
White said he’s working to make Wint’s request a reality at UFC Fight Night 285 taking place on Aug. 22 at the Golden 1 Center in California’s capital city.
Wint is now 7-0 in MMA fights.
The 30-year-old played his college football at Florida International and was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Jets in 2018, when he played in two games before being waived the following summer.
Wint was signed by the Canadian Football League’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats in December 2019, but the 2020 CFL season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and he opted out of his CFL contract in August of that year.
He began his amateur MMA career in 2021.
“I played football my whole life. Not only football, linebacker,” Wint said, per NFL.com. “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.”
