Chase Sherman
"The Vanilla Gorilla" is 18-14 with seventeen of those wins by knockout. He took this fight on roughly ten days' notice — and he has already beaten the man he replaced.
| MMA record | 18-14 |
|---|---|
| Wins by knockout | 17 of 18 |
| Age | 36 |
| Height / reach | 6′4″ / 78″ |
| Fights out of | D'Iberville, Mississippi |
| Team | Sanford MMA |
| Also | Former bare-knuckle boxer |
Seventeen of eighteen
That ratio is the whole profile. Sherman does not win decisions — one of his eighteen career wins came on the cards, and the other seventeen ended early. He started his professional career 9-1 with every single win a first-round TKO before the UFC signed him in 2016.
The fourteen losses are part of the same story. A heavyweight who fights to finish and does not build a defensive base gets finished himself, and four of those losses came by knockout. He is a fighter you watch for the first round because there frequently is not a third.
Why the swap raised the difficulty
Sherman was not on the original card. Rashad Coulter was matched with Jimi Manuwa, came off, and Sherman took the slot with about ten days to go.
The detail that matters: Sherman beat Coulter at UFC 211. So this is not a like-for-like replacement filling a hole — it is a step up in opposition handed to a man returning from a seven-year layoff, a week and a half out.
What he brings
Short notice generally favours whoever was already active and hurts whoever prepared for someone else. That effect is amplified here: Manuwa has been away for years while Sherman has kept fighting.
Under boxing rules there is no takedown to respect and no level change to defend — just rounds. A 6′4″ heavyweight with a 78-inch reach and seventeen knockouts is a difficult proposition in that format regardless of notice.
The result
He dropped Manuwa early and could not finish it, then lost by TKO at 1:52 of the second round. Ten days' notice, a different sport, and a fast start that he could not convert — the short-notice fighter's usual problem in a compressed version.
More on Manuwa. Full results on the Duel Arena 1 page.