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Terrance Saeteurn poses on the scale during the Road to UFC weigh-in at the Hengshan Garden Hotel on August 21, 2025 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
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Terrance Saeterun's Call Finally Came

Flyweight Terrance Saeteurn Makes His UFC Debut Against Nyamjargal Tumendemberel In The Co-Main Event Of The Road To UFC Season 4 Semifinal Special Event In Shanghai
By Thomas Gerbasi, on X @tgerbasi • Aug. 21, 2025

Terrance Saeteurn doesn’t remember what he was doing the day he got the call that changed his life.

“I was either training or maybe at home eating breakfast,” he said. But what he does know is that he wasn’t expecting a call from the UFC asking if he was available to fly from California from Shanghai for a short notice fight against Nyamjargal Tumendemberel this Friday.

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“No, I was not,” Saeteurn laughs. “I kind of caught wind of a little bit of it, but I was just trying to stay ready. I was like, if it happens, it happens. If not, I will be ready when the call does happen. But I'm happy that this is happening and I'm excited about working with the UFC and my future with them.”

At 8-1 with five finishes, that UFC call was going to come soon for the 30-year-old if he kept winning, but as it always goes, that moment when you join the roster never comes soon enough.

“Shoot, I was hoping it was coming. I've been busting my butt the last seven or eight years, training in MMA, and I always wanted to be in the UFC since I was nine years old, so it's kind of surreal right now.”

Over twenty years is a long time to wait for anything. It’s even more rare to have the kind of clarity as a kid to know what you want to do for a living. But Saeteurn never wavered from those early conversations he had with his Uncle Johnny.

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“The reason why I started fighting and why I fell in love with it, with martial arts and MMA and the UFC and all that, is all because of my uncle,” he said. “If it wasn't for him, I don't know what I'd be doing right now. And it all started when I was nine years old. I remember one summer he hit me up and he taught me how to throw a football and taught me how to catch, and he was like, ‘Man, you want to start wrestling? I think you'd be good at it.’ I was like, yeah, let's do that. And I tried to back out on him. I was like, I don't know if I want to go on the day that we were supposed to go to practice. And he's like, ‘Dude, just try it and if you don't like it, then I won't ask you to do it no more.’ And he talked me into it, and I'm glad that I took that leap of faith because my first practice, I'm like, this is the coolest f**king thing ever. And then a few weeks after that, I watched my first UFC fight with him and I'm like, yeah, that's it. That's what I know I want to do.”

He never turned back. At 23, he had his first amateur fight, and less than four years later, he made his pro debut in Urijah Faber’s A1 Combat promotion. Now he’s here, even if his grandparents don’t necessarily agree with his career path.

“My grandparents immigrated here after the Vietnam War, and they're super traditional and super stuck in their ways,” said Saeteurn. “They're like, ‘You're wasting your time doing this. You need to go get a job and you need to start saving your money and don't spend any money.’ But I know that they know that I love what I do. They just want me to be okay.”

It looks like “Wrong Turn” has made enough right turns that he is going to be okay. He’s made an impression, he’s in the biggest fight promotion in the world, and he just got a trip to China to go get into a fistfight. As for what happens now, Saeteurn gets to control his own destiny, and that’s a beautiful thing.

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“When I started fighting, I didn't give a f**k about being famous,” he said. “I just want to do what I love to do, get paid to do it, and eventually give myself and my family, and my future family, some financial security. We’ve never been very wealthy growing up, but we've always been super rich in life and love. I always had clothes on my back, I always had food, I always had a roof over my head and a loving family. So I can't really complain about anything. I'm just happy that I'm able to live my dreams and that my family is super supportive.”

Saeteurn pauses, then continues.

“Twenty-one years later, here I am, a professional fighter, 30 years old, signed to the UFC and I know that nine-year-old me would be looking at me right now and he would be super proud of everything that I've done so far.”

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