In just over a year, Moon native Khama Worthy rockets to top of UFC fight card

The last year has been a little weird for Moon township native Khama Worthy, as the 33-year-old UFC fighter has gone from a last-minute replacement to a co-main event star.

On Aug. 17 last year, Worthy took a fight against Devonte Smith, who was 10-1 at the time, on four days notice as a heavy underdog. Worthy shocked the fighting community with a first-round knockout to kick off his UFC career.

In July, Worthy came through again as an underdog against Luis Pena, who came into the fight with an 8-2 professional record. Worthy, who is known as “The Deathstar,” made Pena submit in the final round with a choke he called “The Pittsburgh Guillotine.”

Now, just 12 months after his UFC debut, Worthy will take on undefeated Ottman Azaitar (12-0) in the co-main event this Saturday on UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas.

“It’s been kind of weird because there’s been so much more stuff going on outside of fighting,” Worthy said about his rise over the past year. “The whole world has been changing and I got kids, so I have been trying to get them organized for school. But the fighting aspect has been a crazy journey, and it’s been somewhat of a whirlwind you can say.”

Before his past two fights, Worthy had put together a solid professional record of 14-6 and he was on a five-fight winning streak. When he took that first fight, Worthy said he didn’t expect his rise to happen so quickly, he just knew every time that he stepped into the octagon, he needed to take advantage of the opportunity.

“I knew, once I got here, I had to perform,” Worthy said. “But to me, it’s just another fight. It’s not a co-main event. It’s just another fight. I just deal with it accordingly. I don’t really like to plan out things or overthink things. I just like to deal with them as they come.”

When it comes to preparing for things, though, Saturday’s fight is one that Worthy has played on repeat. The Moon native was set to fight Azaitar in April, but the fight was canceled. Worthy then got another opponent for the same event, but that fight was canceled as well.

So, the lightweight bout between the undefeated “Bulldog” and Worthy is one that has been in the works for quite some time. Worthy is ready for the opportunity.

“I was prepared for him a long time ago, so we have gone over this game plan 60,000 times,” Worthy said. “There’s nothing else I need to adjust to or anything. Each fighter has a different skill set of what they do well, but we’ve gone over what he can do a thousand times, so now it’s just time to go out and do it.”

Azaitar comes into the matchup with an undefeated record but hasn’t fought since a first-round knockout of Teemu Packalen (8-2) on Sept. 7, 2019. That was his first fight in the UFC.

The Cologne, Germany native picked up his nickname “Bulldozer” from his ability to run through his opponents. He’s tallied eight knockouts, six of which came in the first round, and three submissions, two of which came in the first round. He has only won one of his professional fights by decision, and that came way back in 2016.

If Worthy can extend the fight, he may have a good shot at ruining Azaitar’s undefeated streak. He’s looking to take advantage of whatever he can Saturday.

“He’s aggressive, he has good eyes, he sees things and he’s a forward marcher, so he applies a lot of pressure pretty well,” Worthy said. “We’ll have to look out for those things and take advantage of certain things that he does.”