5 Things You Might Not Know About Matt Schnell

Matt Schnell still flies under the radar as one of the 10 best flyweights in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The divisional mainstay will seek to re-establish his foothold at 125 pounds when he collides with Su Mudaerji in a featured UFC on ABC 3 attraction this Saturday at the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York. Schnell has put together a pedestrian 1-2 record with one no contest across his past four appearances. He last competed at UFC 274, where he surrendered to a Brandon Royval guillotine choke in the first round of their May 7 confrontation.

As Schnell moves ever closer to his forthcoming battle with Mudaerji, here are five things you might not know about him:

1. Small-town America was his launching pad.

Schnell was born on Jan. 15, 1990 in Amory, Mississippi—a city of some 7,000 people situated a little more than 300 miles northeast of New Orleans. He shares a hometown with Herbert Carter, one of the 33 original members of the Tuskegee Airmen.

2. He maximized his regional education.

“Danger” struck gold in the Legacy Fighting Championship organization when he submitted Klayton Mai with an armbar in the first round of their LFC 52 main event to capture the interim flyweight crow on March 15, 2016. Mai, who had beaten Schnell two years prior, conceded defeat 2:14 into Round 1.

3. A familiar springboard was of benefit to him.

Schnell appeared on Season 24 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series in 2016. He dispatched Matt Rizzo with a triangle choke during qualifying, only to be eliminated by a Tim Elliott guillotine in the quarterfinals. Elliott went on to earn decisions over Eric Shelton and Hiromasa Ogikubo to win the 16-man flyweight tournament.

4. His preparation checks a lot of boxes.

The 32-year-old Schnell operates out of Fortis MMA in Dallas, where he studies under Sayif Saud and trains alongside a host of world-class stablemates, from Alex Morono and Ryan Spann to Damon Jackson, Diego Ferreira and Geoff Neal. He has also spent time at American Top Team and the American Kickboxing Academy.

5. He fights against type.

Despite his striking-oriented background—he was a Golden Gloves champion in Louisiana and holds the rank of black belt in karate—Schnell has delivered more than half of his victories as a mixed martial artist by submission, two of them inside the Octagon. He put away Louis Smolka at UFC Fight Night 146 and Jordan Espinosa at UFC on ESPN 5, both with first-round triangle chokes.