5 Things You Might Not Know About Punahele Soriano

PUNA!!!

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— UFC (@ufc) January 16, 2021

Punahele Soriano, his sleep-inducing brick fists notwithstanding, can ill afford another misstep in the Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight division.

On the hunt for his first win in more than a year, the Dana White’s Contender Series graduate will square off with Dalcha Lungiambula in the featured UFC on ABC 3 prelim this Saturday at the UBS Arena in Elmont, Texas. Soriano enters the cage on the heels of back-to-back losses. He last appeared at UFC Fight Night 200, where he wound up on the wrong side of a contentious split decision against Nick Maximov on Feb. 5.

In advance of Soriano’s confrontation with Lungiambula at 185 pounds, here are five things you might not know about him:

1. He passed through a familiar gateway.

Soriano started wrestling eighth grade and later won a state championship at Kahuku High School in Waialua, Hawaii. He traveled some 4,000 miles to wrestle at the next level at Wartburg College, a Division III school in Iowa where he earned All-America honors and finished his career with an 80-29 record.

2. He experienced a meteoric rise.

“Story Time” reached the UFC in less than three years. Soriano made his pro debut under the X-1 World Events banner on Jan. 28, 2017, when he submitted Jon Ferrell with a rear-naked choke 2:20 into the first round of their X-1 45 pairing. He arrived in the Octagon for the first time on Dec. 14, 2019.

3. A rival missed its opportunity with him.

Soriano took his second career bout in the Professional Fighters League in July 2017, as he buried Jon Grover with punches a little more than two minutes into their encounter at PFL Everett. He moved on to compete in Titan Fighting Championship, V3 Fights and the Legacy Fighting Alliance before punching his ticket to the UFC with a successful turn on Season 3 of DWCS.

4. Quick-strike capabilities are part of the package.

The 29-year-old Hawaiian has seven first-round finishes to his credit, two of the sub-minute variety. Soriano punched out Rafael Celestino in 31 seconds at Titan 49 on Aug. 6, 2018 and blew away James Horne with punches in 35 seconds at V3 Fights 69 on June 16, 2018.

5. He knew where to throw out his anchor.

Soriano operates out of the famed Xtreme Couture camp in Las Vegas, where the judo brown belt has sharpened his skills under head coach Dennis Davis and various other trainers while working alongside fellow Hawaiians Brad Tavares and Dan Ige.