Mahamed Aly has already reached the top of the BJJ world but his MMA career has now suffered a bit of a setback, as he was knocked out in his Dana White’s Contender Series (DWCS) debut on September 16th, 2025. Aly left BJJ behind to focus on MMA in 2021 and he spent several years developing his striking, even taking a few amateur boxing matches. It took him a while to make his professional debut, primarily because of the difficulty in matchmaking an elite grappler without an MMA record. He did eventually make his debut in 2024 though, knocking out his opponent after less than a minute of action.
He’s since been building up an impressive resume, winning three more fights in a row and only needing to see the judges’ scorecards once. This put Aly in a great position as one of the top light-heavyweight prospects around right now, and it looked as though he’d developed his striking enough to become a serious threat from all areas too. In his fourth professional fight, Aly even managed to get a win over UFC veteran Jared Gooden and this drew the attention of the biggest MMA promotion in the world. That earned him the call-up to DWCS and although a win doesn’t guarantee a contract, an impressive one does.
Aly was facing a very tough test though; as he was up against fellow top prospect Iwo Baraniewski, who also held an undefeated record and had finished all 5 of his fights. None of Baraniewski’s opponents had even made it out of the first round, and unfortunately neither could Aly. It actually ended up being the quickest fight of either man’s career, as it took just 20 seconds for the finish to come. Aly pawed at Baraniewski with a jab and the Polish fighter countered with a devastating overhand right that put Aly down. He followed it up with quick ground and pound, prompting the referee to wave off the fight and earning himself a UFC contract.
The full footage of Iwo Baraniewski handing Mahamed Aly the first loss of his MMA career at DWCS was uploaded to the UFC’s official Twitter account:
