Sherdog Prospect Watch: Anton Turkalj

As one of the more intriguing light heavyweight prospects in Europe, Anton Turkalj will soon compete for an opportunity to join the Ultimate Fighting Championship. The 26-year-old faces Acacio dos Santos as part of the Season 6 debut of Dana White’s Contender Series on July 26 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Operating out of Goteborg, Sweden, Turkalj carries a perfect 7-0 record and has finished all seven of his opponents inside two rounds.

“The Pleasure Man” prefers to put away the opposition with strikes, as five of his seven victories have come by knockout or technical knockout. Even so, Turkalj does not back down in the grappling department, with two rear-naked choke submissions on his resume. He has displayed a wide array of offensive weaponry, along with a solid chin. His cardio has not yet been tested.

After a long and successful amateur run under the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation banner, Turkalj turned pro and made his debut opposite Marius Pislariu at a Real Xtreme Fighting show on Dec. 10, 2018. He barely broke a sweat, smashing Pislariu in just 32 seconds. A little more than a month later, Turkalj annihilated Filip Vujic at Fight Club Rush 4 to improve to 2-0. Julian Borisov and Felix Polianidis were next to fall to the GBG MMA representative, as Turkalj submitted the former with a rear-naked choke at a Bulldog Media event, then buried the latter with punches at Excellence Fighting Championship 2.


After piling up four straight victories and testing himself against former UFC light heavyweight title contender Alexander Gustafsson in a grappling match, Turkalj signed with the Brave Combat Federation. He made his promotional debut at BCF 37, where he stopped Athanasios Herkeletzis with punches and elbows 75 seconds into their 220-pound catchweight clash on Aug. 1, 2020. Turkalj was pushed in his next assignment: a grudge match with Ibo Aslan in the BCF 40 co-headliner. Aslan showcased an aggressive style that employed short elbows to set up successful takedowns in the first round. After the Austrian seemingly ran out of gas, Turkalj put his grappling chops to use and locked in a rear-naked choke for the finish. Aslan tapped 1:57 into Round 2.

Insanity in Bahrain. Anton Turkalj scores the fastest KO in Brave history with a 13 second spinning back fist against Konstantin Soldatov then exits stage left. #BRAVECF50 pic.twitter.com/onLOGG0TKx

— caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) April 1, 2021

Turkalj suffered a broken leg in his encounter with Aslan and missed roughly seven months of action, making his return at BCF 50 in April 2021. He needed just 13 seconds to finish Konstantin Soldatov with a spinning backfist in another catchweight battle, this one at 209 pounds. It was the fastest knockout in Brave Combat Federation history. While Turkalj was linked to a bout with Kaloyan Kolev on DWCS in 2021, visa issues prevented the Scandinavian prospect from competing. He enters his showdown with dos Santos on the heels of a 15-month layoff.