Anthony Wint Calls Out Sean Sharaf After 23-Second TKO
Anthony Wint needed 23 seconds to stop Lucas Armand on Saturday, then used the Octagon interview to name his next target. The former New York Jets linebacker dropped Armand with punches at 0:23 of the first round at UFC 332 and told Joe Rogan he wants Sean Sharaf inside 40 days.
Wint, in white shorts, closed range after a brief exchange and put Armand down near the fence at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City. Referee Mike Beltran stepped in immediately. The broadcast call caught the finish in real time. “Bumps down! Just bumps,” one voice said as Armand hit the canvas, before another asked, “How do you stop that?”
The official result is a TKO (punches). Armand, making his UFC debut in black shorts, never got off the mat in time to answer. Wint celebrated with a backflip onto the Monster Energy logo, then took the microphone still in his gloves.
“Man, I turn it around, I always say I don’t cut no weight, I don’t waste no time,” Wint told Rogan. “I really, really, really wanna fight in forty days. I know the card might be full, but I got a name.”
The name was Sharaf, whom Wint called Sean Sheriff. “Man, a couple weeks ago, the top prospect ever took a L,” Wint said. “Sean Sheriff, I know you went on, he went on your podcast to say he ready to retire.”
He framed the callout around an old habit. “Man, I used to have a gambling addiction, and my problem was when I had all the chips, I kept putting it on black,” Wint said. “I dare you to put it all on black one more time, cause I’m the top heavyweight prospect in the division, and I dare you come take my over.”
Rogan introduced him as Anthony Wynn and offered a short congratulations. Wint was not finished. “I know we got a lot of Samoans in the building, I’ve been working on it,” he said, drawing a laugh from the interviewer.
Saturday was Wint’s second UFC fight and moved him to 9-0. He stopped Matthew Adams in 34 seconds on Dana White’s Contender Series on August 11, then submitted Terrance Chatman with an arm-triangle choke at 4:29 of the first round on August 22 in Sacramento. The Armand finish came on a 43-day turnaround. Six of his nine wins are by knockout or TKO.
Armand entered unbeaten at 6-0, with five stoppages and a regional title from Michigan’s War at the Wex promotion. He had stopped Cameron Graham on March 7. UFC 332 is now the first loss on his record, 6-1, and it arrived before the first minute of his debut was gone.
Sharaf is the heavyweight who knocked out Gable Steveson in 12 seconds at UFC 331 after entering that fight 0-2 in the promotion. On Rogan’s podcast he said he was considering walking away, citing debt and white specks on a brain scan, and Rogan told him there was nothing wrong with leaving if that was the choice. Wint treated those comments as an opening rather than a farewell.
No bout has been booked. Forty days from October 3 lands in mid-November, and Wint acknowledged the card he wants may already be full. What he has is two first-round UFC wins in seven weeks and a public dare aimed at a fighter who just said he might be done. Whether Sharaf answers, or whether the UFC even offers the fight, is the only unfinished part of Saturday night.
