Kaik Brito Vacates Oktagon Title Again for a Second DWCS Crack

Kaik Brito has now handed back the Oktagon welterweight title twice, both times to chase the same thing: a UFC contract. He gets his second crack at Dana White's Contender Series on Tuesday, Aug. 18 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, where he meets Namo Fazil — a man walking in on a seven-fight winning streak across ONE, UAE Warriors and MVP MMA.

This isn't Brito's first walk down this hallway. In 2023 he vacated the belt for a DWCS shot and dropped a majority decision to Oban Elliott, a result he still disputes. He told MMA Fighting he and plenty of others in the sport had him winning that night, and that he never once felt like he was in danger of losing.

The Long Way Back

After that loss, Brito rebuilt from scratch. He scored a fast finish on the Brazilian regional circuit, returned to Oktagon, ran the gauntlet again and reclaimed the belt — stopping Ronald Paradeiser with a spinning back kick knockout in February. He was booked to defend against Amiran Gogoladze in September before the UFC came calling, and he says giving up the title a second time stung precisely because he'd earned it twice.

The pitch from Brito is straightforward: Oktagon was a beautiful chapter, but the UFC has always been the endgame. He says he sees his future there and wants to build a legacy, and that walking away from the belt was hard but never really in question. The mindset, he insists, is different from 2023 — calmer, more prepared, still hunting the finish whether it comes by submission or knockout.

What He's Walking Into

Fazil is no soft landing. His streak is real and his last outing saw him submit Jake Babian under the MVP MMA banner. Brito respects the threat and clocks the mental game — Fazil likes to talk and get under an opponent's skin — but says the trash talk bounces off him.

For Brito, the math is simple. One clean performance in front of White and the contract he's chased since day one is finally his. Miss again, and he's a two-time DWCS runner-up with a title he no longer holds. He's promised to put on a show. Given how the last one ended, he doesn't have much choice.