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FARID BASHARAT JUST WANTS A CHANCE TO PROVE HIMSELF
Undefeated Bantamweight Talks Steady Climb, Pivotal Clash With Jean Matsumoto
When you’re an undefeated prospect in the UFC, wins don’t necessarily provide answers or clarity; they simply move the goal posts and bring about different questions. While each victory establishes a new floor, gives new information to those trying to forecast where a competitor may eventually settle in, two, three, or four straight victories doesn’t lessen the scrutiny or cause the public interrogation of one’s talents to ease up.
If anything, it ratchets things up.
“I think my resume speaks for itself,” said Farid Basharat, who has opened his UFC tenure with five consecutive victories and goes in search of his sixth straight triumph this weekend in Las Vegas in a compelling battle with fellow prospect Jean Matsumoto. “Regardless of whether I’m in the rankings or not, I’m 14-0.
“When I entered the UFC, there were questions about strength of resume, stuff like that —the question was asked a lot, ‘Can he do it in the UFC? Can he withstand the competition?’ and evidently, I’ve been here a couple years and five fights later, 5-0; five wins, all against tough guys. With this win on February 7, it will be a six-fight win streak, which will be one of the longest in the division.
Farid Basharat, Part 1 | Dana White’s Contender Series: Next Level
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Farid Basharat, Part 1 | Dana White’s Contender Series: Next Level
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“The bar keeps raising for me,” continued the Dana White’s Contender Series grad, who earned a unanimous decision win over Chris Gutierrez last time out. “It used to be ‘Can he win in the UFC?’ Then it was ‘Can he do this?’ When a fighter keeps winning, they ask higher and higher questions; ‘Can he do this? Can he do that?’ At 5-0 in the UFC, ‘Can he beat a veteran? Can he beat a formerly ranked guy?’
“I’ve done it all,” he added before quickly amending his statement. “Not all — not all, but all that was presented in front of me, and now it’s another guy who is tough, strong, young, exciting, so it’s gonna be the same questions again, and for me, it’s gonna be the same answers; I’m pretty sure of that.”
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After each of his first couple of appearances and wins, the above conversation would have carried a frustrated tone, because the skilled 28-year-old, like his older brother and fellow DWCS alum Javid, believes he’s amongst the best in the division and covets the opportunity to prove it. They touched down in the UFC, wanting to be tested, certain they could skip grades, to continue the school and testing theme, and being brought along incrementally felt like they were standing still.
But over the last couple of fights, the American Top Team representative has shifted his outlook and demeanor, focusing all of his energy on delivering the best performance possible and letting the chips fall where they may.
That doesn’t mean he’s happy about being unranked and still awaiting his first assignment against a ranked opponent, but he knows it’s not the course that has been laid out for him inside the Octagon.
“I’ve come to terms with it,” Basharat said with a wry smile, posted up in his dorm room at the South Florida MMA outpost, where he and his brother have been training for the last 18 months. “I feel like — not to play a victim role or anything, but I feel like I’m not one of those guys that isn’t getting pushed massively. I’m not a Payton Talbott who goes from getting dominated at the start of 2025 to getting a Top 10 guy —a legend, a former champion. What a sweet layup! I’ve never been given a layup like that!
“All my fights have been awkward fights, ugly fights, that kind of thing, but it is what it is. You play the cards you’re dealt in life, and all I can do is keep winning; keep training, keep progressing. At the end of the day, I can trick myself out of the race if I’m not careful. Matsumoto is not somebody to be taken lightly; he’s very tough.
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“Why I want somebody in the rankings is because some of these guys outside the rankings are tougher than the guys in the rankings,” continued Basharat, who has faced a steady diet of talented, but underrated bantamweights while remaining unbeaten. “Taylor Lapilus has never been dominated — he’s either lost split decisions in his opponents’ hometown, or he didn’t lose; he’s like 23-4! He’s had two tenures in the UFC, and he goes 6-2, goes elsewhere and continues to beat everyone there. That’s another guy who is really good, could easily have been ranked.
“Matsumoto dropped a split to Rob Font that could have gone either way, so we could be talking about Matsumoto as a ranked guy right now. Why I’m not given all this too much attention is because I don’t expect the layman to know these things. I don’t expect them to know, ‘He had a close fight with Rob Font, he could be ranked, he’s that caliber.’ They just look and say, ‘Is he ranked? No!’
“Matsumoto is tough, so why would I take this guy lightly? He’s a serious, serious test, and I have to go beat him, convincingly.”
Farid Basharat Submits Rodrigues To Stay Undefeated | UFC Fight Night: Gane vs Spivac
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Farid Basharat Submits Rodrigues To Stay Undefeated | UFC Fight Night: Gane vs Spivac
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The skilled fighter could very well get pilloried for articulating his thoughts in full (even though we always ask for athletes to be open and honest), not that he would care either way; he’s too locked in, too focused on continuing to march forward in the ultra-competitive bantamweight division.
And that means showing out against Matsumoto on Saturday.
“I’m excited because I think I get to show some new skills — new to the audience — in the sense that Matsumoto is a little different than Gutierrez, than Lapilus, than Da’Mon Blackshear in that he’s willing to engage in a fight, which will allow me to show more of my skill set,” explained the younger Basharat. “The last couple of fights, I’ve been trying to hunt these guys; Gutierrez, Lapilus — they move around a lot, they point-score, which makes it tough for me to get my damage off.
“I think Matsumoto will be in front of me more, so I think you will see me get more offense done in this fight.”
Provided things go as anticipated this weekend, a more active schedule and a real opportunity to push forward into the Top 15 —or higher — would be ideal, especially because Basharat believes the timing to make a run is here.
“Absolutely; there is no reason not to,” he said when presented with a 2026 schedule that resumed after Ramadan with two more appearances later this year. “In 2024, when I fought Lapilus, I fought on the first card of the year in January, and I hoped for something similar, but it didn’t quite work out.
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“The plan is for sure to be active, especially because I feel it’s there for the taking for me. I’m right there at the top. I feel like I could run to the top now; I really believe in my skill set now, the training I’m doing at American Top Team, how much everybody is helping me. I look at those top guys, and I think to myself, ‘I can beat him. I can beat him. I know I can beat that guy.’
“I just want to get the ball rolling and put myself into the mix,” he added. “A win on February 7 has to put me in the rankings; it would be criminal if I wasn’t. From then on, I want the next guy and the next guy; I want a Top 10.”
But he’s not putting the cart before the horse.
“Before all of that, of course, I have to take care of February 7,” Basharat said with a smile. “If I perform the way I think I’m going to perform, I showcase my skills truly, I get the win I think I’m going to get, I’m right up there at the top of the division; that’s the way I feel.”
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