The Ultimate Fighter 32 finalist Kaan Ofli eyes UFC title shot in 2 years

Kaan Ofli won’t be satisfied with just winning The Ultimate Fighter 32.

The Australian-Turkish veteran competes this Saturday at UFC Vegas 96 in the finals of this season’s featherweight tournament against fellow Team Alexa Grasso fighter Mairon Santos (13-1), with the winner earning a UFC contract. Ofli, 31, has waited 10 years for his chance to not only compete inside the octagon, but to conquer it.

In an interview with MMA Fighting, Ofli gave a firm timeline on when he expects to challenge for UFC gold.

“I give myself about two to two-and-a-half years to be fighting for the belt,” Ofli said. “I want to be active, I want to fight three times next year. I want to fight early in the year, in Australia. I want to fight midyear, June, July, and then I want to fight at the end of the year. Between Australia, Abu Dhabi, Europe, I’m going to basically tell the UFC, ‘Listen, this is my plan, because you guys better plan yourselves because this is what I want.’

“There’s been many guys that have fought for the belt at their fifth or sixth fight, and [I can too] if I keep winning. I’m currently on a 10-fight win streak including my two recent wins [on TUF 32], even though they’re exhibition fights, whatever, I don’t care.”

Heading into the TUF house, Ofli sported an 11-2-1 record competing for promotions such as Australia’s Hex Fight Series, as well as Brave Combat Federation and UAE Warriors. He was coach Alexa Grasso’s second featherweight selection and didn’t disappoint, defeating Cage Warriors prospect Nathan Fletcher and South African grappler Roedie Roets en route to the finale.

“Genghis” expects to hit the ground running and put together a win streak that will make him the No. 1 contender in short time. He was one of the most experienced fighters on the TUF 32 roster and counts former UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski among his past training partners.

“The math works out, but I’ve also trained with Volkanovski a few times,” Ofli said. “We’ve kind of had a mutual friendship. He invited me one time to help him with the Korean Zombie fight. Because of that relationship, I could never verbally say that I wanted to be the UFC champion because I’m humble and I’m respectful, and I felt like there was a little bit of a block because he was the champ and we’re both Aussies and we both trained together and whatnot.

“Now that he isn’t the champion, I have got so much more confidence saying what I want to say and what I feel, and that is what I truly feel. That’s why I believe in myself.”

When Ofli first sparred with Volkanovski, he admits it didn’t go well. However, once Ofli became more comfortable with the UFC star, he’s confident that he gave Volkanovski a run for his money.

“In all honesty, I was a little bit starstruck,” Ofli said of first working with Volkanovski. “I had just had COVID too, so I had just got over COVID, and then I heard he was in the gym. I was like, ‘I’ve got to take this chance. I’ve got to spar with the champ.’ I didn’t do as good as I would have thought, and it was also because I was giving so much respect to this guy. As the rounds went on and I started essentially not respecting him as much and just treating it like a fight, I started doing better and better.

“Then, the next time I trained with him — the reason why he invited me to train with him is obviously because I’m good and that I was giving him good work —the last time I got to train with him was in New Zealand at City Kickboxing. We’ve had a few interactions, and there’s no disrespect to him, I’m not saying anything bad towards that guy, he’s an amazing guy, but he’s at the end of his career. He’s Alexander ‘The Great’ and I am ‘Gengis Kaan the Great,’ so it’s time for me to pass.”

By the time Ofli arrived in Las Vegas to shoot TUF 32, he’d spent plenty of cagetime with elite fighters, and that trend continued with Grasso’s coaching staff. Among the names chosen to assist Grasso was featherweight contender Diego Lopes.

Ofli and Lopes have shared the training room, and if Ofli’s championship plan is to come to fruition, there’s a good chance they’ll share the octagon in the near future.

“I was thinking about that,” Ofli said. “Me and Diego had a couple of rounds sparring and grappling and stuff. Obviously, in the heat of the moment, I was just like, ‘He’s an awesome guy. He’s being really friendly, he’s being really helpful.’ Now I’m thinking about it, ‘Hey, wait a second. You can’t be fighting No. 3 [Brian Ortega], I want that too.’ So there’s a chance that me and him could fight and I would love that fight, but I don’t want to promote that or say that right now just out of respect.”