UFC contract winner booked for debut fight after 16-second KO impressed Dana White

Originally posted on MMA on SI | By Drew Beaupre | Last updated Sep 18, 2025 1:29 PM ET

(Zuffa LLC)

A little over a week after he earned a UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series, heavyweight fighter Steven Asplund has been booked for his promotional debut.

This year’s edition of DWCS is in full swing, and following the conclusion of Week 6 a total of 24 contracts have been handed out by UFC CEO Dana White with four weeks of action and 20 more fights still left to go.

Week 5 closed out with a heavyweight bout that saw Asplund knock out the formerly-undefeated Anthony Guarascio in just 16 seconds, and Alex Behunin reports that “Concrete” has already signed on to make his UFC debut against Sean Sharaf on December 13.

Steven Asplund Gets First UFC Fight After Knockout-Win

Following a successful six-fight amateur career that saw Asplund go undefeated and score four finishes in just over a year, the 27-year-old made his pro debut in late 2023 and stopped 13-fight MMA veteran Anthony Garrett in just 11 seconds.

“Concrete” joined the LFA the following year and scored two more wins before being submitted by Denzel Freeman in the first (and so far only) setback of his pro or amateur careers. Asplund rebounded with back-to-back finishes under the LFA banner and was booked to meet The Ultimate Fighter veteran Jordan Heiderman on September 12 before he got the call to replace Guilherme Pat and face Guarascio on DWCS.

Steven Asplund earns the third-fastest knockout in #DWCS history after taking down Anthony Guarascio in just 16 seconds pic.twitter.com/fWe3LbXKBf
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) September 10, 2025

Entering the night as a slight pre-fight underdog, Asplund only needed 16 seconds to knock out Guarascio and secure his place as one of five fighters on Week 5 that impressed White enough to earn UFC contracts.

Sean Sharaf Hopes To Rebound From UFC Debut

Asplund’s promotional debut will see him square off with the hard-hitting Sharaf, who stepped in to replace Chris Barnett at a UFC Fight Night event last October and was stopped by Junior Tafa in the second round.

Prior to facing Tafa, Sharaf went 2-0 as an amateur fighter in 2019 before he turned pro in 2021. “The Smoke” went 4-0 before he got the call to join the UFC, and all four of those victories came via knockout in the first round.

(Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

Sharaf will welcome Asplund to the UFC as part of a UFC Fight Night event at the promotion’s UFC APEX facility in Las Vegas, NV on December 13. The card is headlined by a rebooked flyweight matchup between Brandon Royval and Manel Kape, and it will serve as the final UFC offering of 2025 as well as the promotion’s last event with ESPN before the start of the new Paramount deal in 2026.

UFC Vegas 112 Fight Card

• Main Event: Brandon Royval vs. Manel Kape

• Iasmin Lucindo vs. Gillian Robertson

• Tereza Bleda vs. Jamey-Lyn Horth

• Steven Asplund vs. Sean Sharaf