Athletes
Punahele Soriano | Best Effort All That Matters
Resurgent Welterweight Focused On Performance, Not Result Ahead Of UFC 320
Punahele Soriano’s decision to relocate to the welterweight division after spending his first seven UFC appearances competing at middleweight was brought on more by what was taking place in the room at Xtreme Couture than what was happening when he crossed the threshold into the Octagon.
“Honestly, it was more so from training in the gym,” began the affable Hawaiian when asked about his move to the 170-pound ranks ahead of his UFC 320 showdown with Nikolay Veretennikov on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena. “I’ve been so competitive my whole life that the wins and losses, I dunno —yeah, they suck, and they chip away at you a little, but you can’t let those define you; that’s just one moment of a day.
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"But when you’re in the training room and every day you’re getting beat down, beat down, it’s just hard. It’s hard going into a fight knowing you got beat up the whole camp. I feel like maybe I was losing a bit of hope at ’85 because guys are so big and the guys, I was training with at the gym are like 215 (pounds), 220 (pounds) and I’m just hanging around at like 190 (pounds), so I’m just coming into the fights with zero confidence, getting crushed all day long.”
To be fair, the collection of middleweights and bigger bodies that Soriano was contending with at XC is comprised of a bunch of standout talents, including former champ Sean Strickland, Top 15 mainstay Roman Dolidze, fellow UFC 320 competitor Edmen Shahbazyan, and Brad Tavares, the OG Hawaiian at the Las Vegas outpost. But mindset and confidence are massive factors in every fight, and after starting his UFC tenure with consecutive first-round finishes, Soriano scuffled, dropping four of his next five, getting stopped in his two 2023 appearances that proved to be his last as a member of the 185-pound ranks.
Initially unsure if he would be able to get himself down to the welterweight limit without feeling drained — “I haven’t been that weight since I was a senior in high school,” he joked — a test cut went well, and Soriano made the move. In his divisional debut, he mauled Miguel Baeza, earning a unanimous decision victory, and then earlier this year, he got back to his finishing ways, stopping Uros Medic 31 seconds into their meeting on the opening card of the year.
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“Now I’m finally going with guys my size, the playing field is a little more even; it just feels right,” he said of preparing alongside his fellow welterweights. “I don’t even think I’m necessarily a big 170-pounder — I’m kinda mid-range —but it fits perfectly for me.
“I still have bad days because everyone is tough in our gym, but more good days than bad days, and even the bad days aren’t like, ‘Man, there’s nothing I can do;’ they’re just little errors that I’ve made, and I know I can fix it.”
Getting to the correct weight class was a massive positive shift for Soriano, but his time at middleweight wasn’t all for naught.
Punahele Soriano Scores Emphatic Second-Round KO | UFC Fight Night: Ortega vs Rodriguez
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Punahele Soriano Scores Emphatic Second-Round KO | UFC Fight Night: Ortega vs Rodriguez
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A member of Dana White’s Contender Series Class of ’19, the 32-year-old touched down in the promotion having had six pro fights. Each of the first five of those contests ended in the opening round, with Soriano only eclipsing four minutes in a fight on the evening he earned his contract with a decision win over Jamie Pickett.
His next two starts also produced first-round wins, and so it wasn’t until that five-fight run that began with a loss to Brendan Allen and culminated with a setback against Dustin Stoltzfus that he really started gaining the invaluable experience you need in order to grow as a competitor and really start to feel comfortable competing at this level and fighting inside the Octagon.
“I’ve had more fights in the UFC now than I had prior to (reaching the UFC); it’s crazy,” said Soriano, who carries a 5-4 mark in the UFC and 11-4 record overall into this weekend’s preliminary card bout with Veretennikov. “I came into the UFC so green, so young. Prior to the Contender Series, all first-round finishes, so not getting much cage time at all, and just super-green.
“I still feel a little green, to be honest; I still feel like I’m growing.”
His skills and abilities aren’t the only thing that is growing.
Earlier this year, Soriano and his wife welcomed a daughter, and the arrival of his baby girl has helped the thoughtful and engaging fighter to further detach from the result itself and keep things in perspective.
“So the first two weeks were hard —sleep-deprived, I felt crazy,” Soriano said with a laugh. “I don’t know what it’s like to be a crackhead, but I felt like a crackhead — I felt paranoid, on edge, wired —and I trained those two weeks, and I got the crap beat outta me. Felt terrible, got beat up every single time.
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“I go home and I’m so happy. Nothing that can happen will change the fact that my daughter is home with my wife, and I get to come home to them. Nothing will change that, and it brings me so much joy. I feel so much power and fulfilment. I’m less tied to the result because of them.”
That ability to detach from the result itself and focus more on performance is a major step for any athlete, as the outcome of any fight, match, or game is determined by a number of things, many of which are out of an individual competitor’s hands. What they can control, however, is how they prepare and the effort they put forth, and those are the things that Soriano is focused on heading into his return to action this weekend.
“I’m very happy with where I’m at and I’m just trying to go out there and perform to the best of my abilities,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to lose that tie with the result —the result isn’t gonna define me. I’m very proud of my wife and my daughter, and I’m just happy I can be with them. I just feel like everything is a bonus. I get to go out there and perform at UFC 320. I get to fight under the bright lights, fight this tough guy.
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“Everything feels good, and I’m excited to do it. Building more momentum is great, but I just want to perform to the best of my abilities; that’s all that matters. I know that if I perform to the best of my abilities, whatever the result is, it will be good.
“I feel really good,” Soriano reiterated, his grin growing wider. “I’m confident and I feel super-excited for this opportunity. I haven’t fought at T-Mobile since my debut, so I think it’s super-cool to get to be back in there.”
That night, at UFC 245, he scored a first-round knockout win over Oskar Piechota. More experienced, more confident, and fighting in the right weight class, we’ll see if he can replicate the performance on Saturday night against Veretennikov.
UFC 320: Ankalaev vs Pereira 2 took place live from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 4, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!