Marcus McGhee Is Climbing at 135 — And He Does It on a Skateboard

Marcus McGhee is 12-2 and ranked No. 15 at bantamweight, and he's doing the thing fighters are supposed to do after a setback: stacking wins. Earlier this month at UFC 332 he put away Anthony Romero with a first-round TKO, pushing his run to two straight and banking his first stoppage since 2024.

That Romero finish mattered on paper. Nine of McGhee's 12 wins now come by knockout, and dropping Romero — a 7-2 prospect who hadn't been finished with any regularity — inside a single round is the kind of result that keeps a top-15 ranking from going stale. It also washed a little of the taste out of July 2025, when McGhee dropped a decision to current champion Petr Yan.

The Yan Loss in Context

Losing to Yan isn't the sort of thing that derails a career. Yan now holds the belt, and taking him the distance is a resume line, not a red flag. McGhee bounced straight back and reminded everyone why he's nicknamed 'The Maniac,' turning the Romero fight into a highlight rather than a grind.

What's interesting is how little of that intensity carries over once the cage door opens. Away from the sport, McGhee leans into skateboarding and Star Wars — hardly the typical hyper-serious prizefighter image. It's a reminder that the guys throwing hands for a living are, more often than not, regular people with regular hobbies.

Where He Goes Next

At 15th in a deep division, McGhee is in the awkward sweet spot: good enough to be dangerous, not yet positioned for a title eliminator. Another finish like the Romero one, though, and the matchmakers won't have much choice but to feed him a ranked name. Two wins in a row and a growing KO count will do that.

For now, the math is simple. McGhee has the streak, the finishing rate and a loss to the champion that reads more like a measuring stick than a ceiling. If he keeps closing the show inside a round, the top 10 is a short skate away.