Ismael Bonfim Record, stats and next fight

Background

Ismael Bonfim was born on December 28, 1995, in Brasília, Brazil. He is the eldest of eleven children in a family where the father, struggling with alcohol, left the household while the younger children were still growing up. Ismael and one of his older sisters took on jobs to support the rest of the family, a period that shaped his determination. His younger brother Gabriel Bonfim also followed the path of mixed martial arts to the UFC, with both brothers training at the same gym, Cerrado MMA, in Brasília.

Bonfim built a solid record on the Brazilian circuit before joining the Dana White’s Contender Series in 2022, where his performances earned him a UFC contract. He then put together a thirteen-fight winning streak spanning several years, before suffering his first professional loss in nearly nine years. That run over such a long stretch made him, at the time of his signing, one of the hottest fighters in the Brazilian talent pool scouted by the American organization.

UFC Career

Bonfim made a strong impression at UFC 283 on January 21, 2023, in Rio de Janeiro, where he beat Terrance McKinney by second-round KO with a flying knee in front of his home crowd. On July 1, 2023, his winning streak ended against Benoit Saint Denis, who submitted him in the first round with a face crank. He bounced back with a unanimous-decision win over Vinc Pichel on May 4, 2024, at UFC 301.

The rest of his UFC run was marked by a string of setbacks, after years without a loss. On February 15, 2025, he lost to Nazim Sadykhov, stopped by a doctor’s stoppage in the first round. On November 8, 2025, he lost by KO to Chris Padilla in the second round. On July 25, 2026, he lost by submission, a D’Arce choke, to Axel Sola in the very first round. On October 10, 2026, he suffered another first-round KO loss against Francisco Prado, amid repeated struggles to make weight that led the organization to part ways with him.

Fighting Style

A boxer by training, Bonfim builds his game on heavy striking, as shown by his winning flying knee against Terrance McKinney, while keeping submission and decision options open. Of his twenty professional wins, nine came by KO or TKO, seven by decision and four by submission, a split that reflects an ability to vary his finishing routes depending on the opponent and how the fight unfolds. His brother Gabriel Bonfim, also a UFC veteran, shares the same training gym with him in Brasília, and the two brothers even shared a UFC card in Las Vegas in February 2025.