Sean Sharaf Starches Gable Steveson in 12 Seconds for Biggest UFC Upset of 2026
A +1000 underdog, Sharaf slept the Olympic gold medalist with a left hook 12 seconds into their UFC 331 heavyweight bout.
Nobody believed Sean Sharaf could win Saturday night. The oddsmakers had him at +1000. The Olympic gold medalist across the cage was -2500. Twelve seconds later, Gable Steveson was unconscious on the canvas at Crypto.com Arena, and one of the biggest upsets in UFC history was in the books.
Sharaf caught Steveson with a devastating left hook as Steveson threw a calf kick right after the opening bell. The counter landed flush and Steveson crumpled, per Sherdog. The knockout was the third fastest in UFC heavyweight history.
Sharaf, 33, entered on a two-fight UFC losing streak after going 4-0 with first-round finishes to start his career. Steveson, the 26-year-old Olympic wrestling gold medalist who trains alongside Jon Jones, dropped to 4-1 and absorbed the first loss of his professional career.
"I'm not surprised, motherf---ers. I feel amazing. I worked so hard, I prayed so hard. Believed in myself when nobody believed in myself," Sharaf told the crowd, per Sherdog.
Jon Jones was sitting cageside and his reaction went viral immediately. Per Sherdog, Jones was left speechless, jaw dropped, barely able to process what he had just watched happen to his training partner.
Sharaf earned one of the $100,000 Proper Chaos bonuses for the knockout, per MMA Mania. He improves to 5-2 and suddenly has a very different trajectory in the UFC heavyweight division.
Plus 1000. Twelve seconds. I have watched a lot of cards in this town and I have never seen a -2500 favorite get erased that fast. If you had Sharaf on a flyer, congratulations, you had the ticket of the year. If you laid the chalk on a 4-0 wrestler with no real striking miles, you learned an expensive lesson about heavyweight math.
What I love about it is how it happened. Steveson threw a calf kick off the opening bell and got countered with a left hook. That is not a fluke, that is a striker reading a wrestler who has never been hit. Sharaf came in on a two-fight skid and everyone had written him off. He had not.
The Jon Jones jaw-drop clip is going to outlive the knockout. And Sharaf's speech afterward was the best part. Nobody believed in him. He did. Third fastest heavyweight finish ever and a $100,000 bonus. Good for the ex-Marine.
