Sherdog Prospect Watch: Denys Bondar

Denys Bondar will walk to the Octagon for the first time when he joins the Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight division and takes on Malcom Gordon as part of the UFC Fight Night 200 undercard on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. A former World Warriors Fighting Championship titleholder at 125 pounds, Bondar was supposed to make his promotional debut in 2021 before a series of unfortunate events forced him to delay those plans for a year.

Bondar’s opponents carry a combined record of 119-79-2. Fighting out of Kharkiv, Ukraine, he has delivered all 14 of his wins inside the distance. Bondar presents himself as an outstanding grappler who has authored 10 submissions, but he also has four knockout victories to his credit. He has gone the distance once, losing a four-round affair to Aleksandr Lunga in a March 2017 title bout under the Professional Fight Union banner. Bondar’s only other defeat resulted in a rear-naked choke submission to Dana White’s Contender Series alum Zhifa Shang.

“Psycho” broke ground on his pro career on Feb. 14, 2014, when he put away Vadim Sergeenko with punches in 2:37. From there, he alternated between amateur and professional fights between 2015 and 2017. While it might seem unusual to Westerners, there are still some parts of the world—Eastern Europe being one of them—where the distinction between the two remains quite subtle. As a result, it is not uncommon to see pro fighters taking on other pro fighters under amateur rules (it has caused untold headaches for those in charge of the Sherdog Fight Finder).

Bondar recorded six consecutive victories as a professional before running into Shang and Lunga. The confrontation with Lunga was peculiar in that it took place on an open mat without a fence. Every time the combatants stepped out of the designated competition area, the referee stopped the action and brought them back to the center of the mat. Nevertheless, Bondar bounced back from those two losses, as he submitted Lev Ambarcumian with an armbar before rattling off seven more wins without a setback. He will ride that eight-fight winning streak into his UFC debut.


The surge included Bondar’s WWFC flyweight title fight against Kewin Jacques Rangel in November 2019. Rangel initially managed to score with punches, as it took the Ukrainian a few minutes to adjust to his game. Bondar lacked confidence on the feet and accepted being taken down in the first round. Once on the canvas, he appeared to be at ease and quickly defused Rangel’s choke attempt by turning into his guard and escaping a perilous situation. Bondar spent the rest of the period mauling his counterpart from top position. In Round 2, he rushed the action to the canvas, set up an arm-triangle choke and forced the tapout at 2:14.


In his most recent appearance, Bondar dispatched Kenan Jafarli with a rear-naked choke to defend his WWFC bantamweight title on Aug. 23, 2020. He hugged his opponent in a body lock right out of the gate and executed a takedown with an inside trip. On the mat, Bondar softened Jafarli with punches after skillfully seizing control of the situation and waiting for the right moment to improve his position. He eventually used a scramble to capture Jafarli’s back and set the stage for the choke. The tapout came 4:12 into Round 1.