UFC re-signs hulking heavyweight after recent crushing knockout victory

As it turns out, one victory in MMA outside of the Ultimate Fighting Championship can be enough to
earn a call to come back.

Management team First Round
Management announced on Friday that their client, Robelis
Despaigne (6-2), has been re-signed to the UFC. The soon-to-be
38-year-old ex-kickboxer has no return date announced, nor an
opponent selected for his first appearance back.

Despaigne ran the table in Karate Combat in one year

The Cuban appeared once in MMA following his UFC release, punching
out Junior dos
Santos in May at the inaugural MVP MMA event. This gave the
6-foot-7 striker his sixth first-round knockout across his six
victories. On the way, Despaigne joined the striking-only Karate
Combat league at the end of 2024 and punched out Dominik
Jedrzejczyk in four seconds. Subsequent foes Marcos
Brigagao and Roggers
Souza could only survive a combined 20 seconds in the pit
against him.

On the heels of those three speedy knockouts totaling a whopping 24
seconds of combat time, he entered into KC Last Man Standing
tournament to earn a heavyweight title shot. In one night, “The Bad
Boy” outpointed former Glory light heavyweight champ Saulo
Cavalari, went on to wreck fellow UFC ex-pat Tim Johnson
in 20 seconds and forced the doctor to save another former UFC
fighter in Zac Pauga
after beating him down for three minutes.

The six KC wins, five by knockout, culminated in a title shot in
December. Facing one more fighter cast out of the UFC in Sam Alvey,
Despaigne shattered the Cinderella story that was Alvey’s post-UFC
run by blasting him with a head kick to claim the organization’s
heavyweight crown. On this same run, Despaigne attached himself to
the ill-fated GFL promotion, who lured him into signing with them
by offering him a match against Todd Duffee
in what was to be their first event in May 2025—GFL has still yet
to run an event.

The Bad Boy becomes a Bad
Man.

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May 17, 2026