Kevin Vallejos is in awe to see his name among the 15 best featherweights in the UFC.

It’s not that the Argentine youngster doesn’t believe in his potential, but he just didn’t expect to enter the official UFC featherweight rankings in his first year with the promotion.

Vallejos (17-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) made his first walk to the octagon in March and debuted with a first-round knockout win over veteran Seung Woo Choi. He followed up with two more wins, the most recent being a knockout of Giga Chidkaze earlier this month in the co-main event of UFC on ESPN 73. This streak was enough to get the 24-year-old a spot in the UFC rankings – which wasn’t in his plans entering 2025.

“I’m very happy and satisfied with what I did this year,” Vallejos told MMA Junkie in Spanish. “It was a very complete year. It was a lot. It was a dream to start the year as a debutant and end it ranked. It’s crazy. Honestly, I didn’t expect this.”

Vallejos’ expectations were to get himself accustomed to the UFC bright lights, get a few wins and start positioning himself so he could then make a push toward the rankings in 2026.

“I was surprised to get No. 13 in the rankings. I thought I would be ranked 15th after beating Giga,” Vallejos said. “I sincerely was surprised to see me in the rankings because that wasn’t in my plan for this year, to enter the top. I never thought about that. The plan was just to generate experience. But to get to the top so quick and be ranked 13th, it surprised me a ton.”

The quick success proved to Vallejos that he’s on the right path and beyond that, he’s where he needs to be – home. Unlike many South American fighters, Vallejos has stayed with his original team rather than migrate to a bigger team in the U.S. He’s very proud to be fighting out of Argentina, and 2025 just validated his stance on staying home.

“I’m at the level, and we’re doing things well,” Vallejos said when asked about his biggest lesson in 2025. “A lot of people have to go live in another country to get the resources. I’m doing something different. I’m staying in my country, Argentina, where the country is not that well known, and we’re not at the level culturally or technically like Brazil, United States or other countries. Yet, I do see we’re doing well. I only leave to do camp, but I mainly stay here and continue to learn and get tools. I still have the idea of doing all my camp here. That’s something I’m looking at and more this coming year. We already did something similar. I only leave (to Brazil) a month-and-a-half. I continue to think about that.”

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC rookie surprised to enter rankings in 2025: ‘It’s crazy’