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Nick Klein warms up prior to his fight during Dana White's Contender Series season eight, week ten at UFC APEX on October 15, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
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Nick Klein Is Getting Everything He Hoped

The Opportunistic Nick Klein Hopes To Keep Making His Dreams Come True In His UFC Debut At UFC Fight Night: Cejudo vs Song

Nick Klein, a graduate from season eight of Dana White’s Contender Series about to make his UFC debut on Saturday against Mansur Abdul-Malik, wants to make it clear that he is no overnight success.

“Honestly, man, it only took me eight years,” laughs Klein, who nonetheless has embraced the grind that has led him to Seattle, hence the nickname “Blue Collar.”

“It came about just because of the way I live my regular life,” said the Wisconsin native. “I do a lot of construction work, a lot of concrete stuff, I live kind of rural and I'm just the fix-it man around the house, doing gardening and raising animals. So ‘Blue Collar’ kind of got stuck to me from my peers and you can't give yourself a nickname. So once they picked it, that's what I was rolling with.”

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I do make it clear that I prefer his old moniker, “The Amish Hammer,” a shave and a haircut – and the reality that he’s not Amish – killed that one off. So “Blue Collar” it is, and that work ethic means putting in the time when no one else wants to, and being the first in the gym and the last one to leave. It’s not glamorous, but often, that hard work leads to opportunities, which was the case when his teammate, Wes Schultz, got injured and was unable to compete on the season finale of the Contender Series last October.

Nick Klein kicks Heraldo Souza of Brazil in a middleweight fight during Dana White's Contender Series season eight, week ten at UFC APEX on October 15, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
Nick Klein kicks Heraldo Souza of Brazil in a middleweight fight during Dana White's Contender Series season eight, week ten at UFC APEX on October 15, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

“We had our Saturday sparring practice and I was supposed to fight the Saturday before that Tuesday of Contender’s,” Klein recalls. “Wesley had that fight scheduled, and in our rounds, he popped a rib and it wasn't looking good at all.”

Well, it was starting to look good for Klein, who shares a manager – Jason House – with Schultz. There was already a teammate in the Pura Vida gym in Milwaukee who was ready to fill in for Klein’s fight. As far as Klein, he was more than prepared to make the trip to Las Vegas to fight Heraldo Souza.

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“I told my coaches, let’s give Jason House a call,” he said. “If Wes ain't taking this fight, this is my opportunity. I'm in prime shape against an opponent that I think I could do well against. They ended up sticking me in and I'm like, ‘This is my moment. It's time to show the whole world that I deserve to be here.’”

It only took Klein 37 seconds to make his point, as he submitted Souza via rear naked choke and picked up a UFC contract. Did it come sooner than he expected? Absolutely, but the way he sees it, he was closing in on a roster spot.

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“I figured, if anything, by the next season (of DWCS) I would've had another win or two and they would've put me on,” said Klein, 6-1 as a pro with a reported 7-1 amateur slate. “I was hopeful, and I made a promise to myself and my girl and my kids that if I didn't see a major promotion by the end of 2025 that I would hang it up and just kind of go back to doing regular life and be there for my family and stuff way more. But luckily the call came when it did and I took advantage of every second.”

That he did. And yes, he did buy Schultz dinner.

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“Yeah, he's gotten a couple perks,” laughs Klein. “So I'm throwing some gear and stuff his way and obviously speaking very highly of him as I start to make my climb here. I've told it to him outright and thanked him, too, not thanking him for getting hurt, but I've made it known to him that I know that I wouldn't be where I'm at without him.”

Ironically, Schultz was getting a second shot on season eight of DWCS after losing on episode one to none other than Abdul-Malik. Now it’s Klein facing off against the highly touted Las Vegan, who scored a first-round stoppage of Dusko Todorovic in his UFC debut last November.

Nick Klein reacts after a submission victory against Heraldo Souza of Brazil in a middleweight fight during Dana White's Contender Series season eight, week ten at UFC APEX on October 15, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)
Nick Klein reacts after a submission victory against Heraldo Souza of Brazil in a middleweight fight during Dana White's Contender Series season eight, week ten at UFC APEX on October 15, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

“I never actually watched Wesley's fight against him,” admits Klein. “When I found out I was booked to fight him, I watched the first round and that was it. I heard the tide started to turn a little bit in the second round. Wesley had some success, but I didn't want to see that part of it. I wanted to see Mansur where he was his best and most dangerous, and I cut the fight off after that. All I've seen of him on film is Wesley's first five minutes against him.”

The 29-year-old hasn’t even watched anything before or after that five minutes, opting to let his coaches do that part of the preparation while he takes everything in from those coaches and Schultz.

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“My coaches obviously got to see the whole fight and they watched his UFC debut,” said Klein. “He's a tough, strong, explosive guy. He can wrestle well, he can strike even better, and I'm expecting a good, hard, tough opponent. But I've got tips here from Wesley in our rounds. He kind of cues me in on things that he was doing, some tendencies that he might have. Obviously, he's getting better and better over there at Xtreme Couture. I've trained there with those guys and I've got an immense amount of respect for that gym and everybody in it. So I know he's improving every day, as am I.”

He's ready. Having less than 10 fights on his record might be a red flag, but eight years chasing this dream proves that the future is now. You can hear it in his voice, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t tough times. Luckily, his lady Davita, the mother of their three kids, has kept him focused when he started to think that maybe it was time to step away from the sport.

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“We first found out we were pregnant with our first child, our six-year-old, when I was 1-0 as an amateur,” Klein recalls. “And when I found out, I just looked at her and I said, ‘Well, I guess I'm going to have to just put this (fighting) on the back burner. And she stopped me. She said, ‘Stop right there. I know you can do this, and I know your mindset and I know your heart. I know you're going to chase whatever you want to do and that you'll be successful at it. As far as you stopping your love and your passion, that's not going to happen. I believe in you and I know you can do it.’ She said that when she found out she was pregnant with our child and I brought up not doing it, she pushed me to stay, to keep it up and the first thing she said was, you're not giving up on your dreams. I know you're going to make it. So yeah, she's a rock to me.”

That’s plenty to fight for, and Klein plans on doing just that on Saturday night. As for the emotions before the most important walk of his career, he won’t know until he gets there, but he has an idea what it will look like, at least.

“I’ll be honest with you, I keep envisioning walking into that locker room and seeing the fight kit with my name on the shorts,” he said. “That's been the biggest thing on my mind, walking into that locker room and finally seeing that fight kit with my name. That was my dream, being in the UFC and seeing that fight kit with my name on it. That's going to be a tough moment itself, and then it's going to be kind of crazy. I got to go out and fight not long after seeing that kit, but it's going to be a surreal experience, especially knowing that we're fighting in an arena right away. I've spent a long time working for this and it hasn't come easy. Every training session that I've put in, every practice has played into what's going to happen on February 22nd, and there's definitely going to be a rollercoaster of emotions before that night and leading up to it. Like I said, I know it's going to be a crazy moment when I get to walk in and finally see those shorts with my name printed on them, and it's going to be everything that I've ever hoped for.”

UFC Fight Night: Cejudo vs Song took place live from Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington on February 22, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!