Athletes
Chris Padilla Knows He Belongs On The Big Stage
California Lightweight Is Unbeaten In Five UFC Fights, And Wants To Prove That He Deserves Main Card Billing After UFC Sacramento.
Chris Padilla hasn’t done much wrong in the Octagon so far. Five fights, four wins and one draw have given him an impressive, unbeaten start to life with the mixed martial arts leader. Now, after establishing himself in the talent-stacked lightweight division, he wants to level up and become a main card player moving forward. The Gardena-native returns to action at UFC Fight Night: Hernandez vs Rodrigues on Saturday night in Sacramento, California, where he’ll rep his home state with pride.
“Oh, bro, it's my blood, man,” he said. “The way I see it is, it's not about L.A. It's not about Gardena. It's about California this week, man. And my job is to hold the flag, you know? So I'm gonna go in there and I'm gonna cut him up, and California eats.”
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On Saturday night, “him” is Nasrat Haqparast, a respected veteran of the Octagon who Padilla admits he used to watch compete in the UFC while he was still a fan. Now, he’s set to share the Octagon with him as he looks to bounce back after his matchup with MarQuel Mederos ended in a majority draw at UFC 327.
That result gave Padilla the chance to assess things to see where he might have fallen just short, and he came away with a clear lesson – you’ve got to go for it, but you have to fight smart.
“I think I learned that I just have to eat,” he said. “I felt like the style I was bringing was the perfect style for that opponent, but I realized there's a few moments where I can just pull my foot off the gas just a little bit… I realized even though I'm dominating four minutes, there could be these little moments of fighting for four minutes where the judge might see you get hit, or something lands a little extra than what it actually was.
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“So, just pacing myself a little bit more. I was a shark in the water, bro. That's all I can say. I just envisioned it so many times that when I pressured him that he was gonna run from me, he was gonna try to poke and move. So, I just wanted to attack. So, [it’s about] just finding balance a little bit more.”
Padilla has built an impressive run of form since arriving in the UFC, and remains unbeaten inside the Octagon, with his successes on the big stage forcing him to adjust his mindset to ensure he consistently produces his best on fight night.
“I think for me the change has not been so much as an athlete, but more as a fan, because just growing up, I grew up watching all this,” he explained. “Like, I'm fighting Nasrat. If you asked me five years ago, three years ago, four years ago, would I be fighting Nasrat? I'd be like, no. I'm a local fighter. [Nasrat was] some guy I used to watch when I was like 18, you know?. So seeing him now, it's like, damn, I'm really right here. I'm right by all the guys I used to watch. So I think I'm fanning [out] more than anything because it's just like, ‘Bro, this is crazy!’
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“But the moment I stepped into the UFC cage, I told myself I was gonna defeat everybody. That day was just a marker, but as an athlete, I felt like I'm ready to compete. I'm ready to beat every one of them and just show I'm better.”
As a rising force in a lightweight division that is packed with big names and big personalities, it can be difficult to stand out through results alone. Padilla ackowledges that and said that he plans to be more vocal moving forward, without veering off into the cartoonish trash talk that can detract from a fighter’s credentials.
“It's not going to be speaking in a way of, hey, I gotta disrespect fighters or the people I work for,” he said. “No shot at anybody, but I believe I should be on the main card. I believe I'm a main card fighter. That's where the most eyes are gonna see it. That's where the biggest stars are… In my opinion, if you don't hold rank, or if you haven't been in the UFC way longer than me, I don't know if I should be behind you. So that's just my opinion. So, it's just standing on that business, man.”
And that determination to hold his ground and get his respect will drive Padilla when he returns to action against Haqparast on Saturday night.
“When I get out there, I'm gonna perform and I'm gonna say the same thing when they hand me another mic,” he stated. “I'm a main card fighter. I'm a pay-per-view fighter, and that's where I stand.”
UFC Fight Night: Hernandez vs Rodrigues took place live from Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California on August 22, 2026. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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