Sherdog Prospect Watch: Bilal Hasan

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Bilal Hasan certainly appears to fit the description as it relates to what the Ultimate Fighting Championship likes in potential recruits.

Already well-established as one of the sport’s top regional talents, the 24-year-old Honolulu native retained his Cage Fury Fighting Championships flyweight title with a fourth-round technical knockout of Jason Eastman in the CFFC 143 headliner on June 6 at 4 Bears Casino and Lodge in New Town, North Dakota. Hasan unwound the American Top Team rep with a front kick to the body and follow-up punches 1:46 into Round 4.

Eastman made little progress outside of a few submission attempts. Hasan attacked with kicks to all levels, leaned into collar-tie elbows and knees, countered effectively and bloodied his challenger’s nose with a ringing right uppercut. He doubled over Eastman with a front kick in the fourth round, pinned him to the fence and unleashed punches until the job was done.

The win improved Hasan to 7-0 and left him as one of the more promising unsigned prospects. He has finished six of his seven victories, five of them by knockout or technical knockout.

“I’m young, and I just need to be patient with it,” Hasan said in an interview with the Home of Fight podcast. “I have to develop my skill set and just gain as much experience as I can, because the UFC, it really is the highest … it’s the cream of the crop. It’s next level, so I have to be fully prepared.”

It sounds as if the UFC already has Hasan on its radar. He was purportedly offered a spot on Season 33 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series but chose to decline.

“It was right after my fight in February, and they wanted me to fly out the next week to start filming right away,” Hasan said. “It didn’t really work out with our timeline. Me and my team just believed that it wasn’t really the right time for it. [The UFC reps] just said, ‘Yeah, take your time, be patient and just keep getting as much experience as possible.’”

Hasan operates out of Charlie’s Combat Club in Everette, Washington, but also regularly makes the 90-minute drive to AMC Pankration, where he trains with former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson—a man some view as the greatest mixed martial artist of all-time. “Mighty Mouse” held the 125-pound title for more than 2,000 days and successfully defended it on 11 different occasions. Johnson, now 39, retired in September 2024.

“He’s still grinding to this day,” Hasan said. “Whenever he’s in town, I just hit him up. The amount of knowledge and wisdom he gives me is absolutely incredible. He really believes in me. He tells me, ‘Man, just keep doing what you’re doing. Your striking is really good. We’ll keep working on your grappling and wrestling like we do.’ He believes in my skill set, and that just gives me so much self-belief. I’m so grateful to have him as a mentor and ultimately as a friend.”