Dana White couldn’t hold back his excitement as former employee Sal Everett punched his ticket to the UFC on Tuesday night.Everett, who first worked as a security guard for the UFC before becoming White’s personal runner, competed on the Contender Series (DWCS) at Meta Apex in Las Vegas.Everett stopped Martin with a right hook in the first round in front of a raucous Vegas crowd to earn his UFC contractGettyDWCS offers up-and-coming athletes a chance to fight their way to a UFC contract, with Paddy Pimblett‘s teammate George Staines signing just last week after a slam knockout.Just before the two-minute mark, Everett knocked out fellow American Ozzy Diaz with a perfect combination, extending his professional MMA record to 5-0.And UFC CEO White, who admitted in the build-up to Everett’s fight that he’d have a tough time staying unbiased, was delighted when offering the 29-year-old a contract.White lauds impressive Everett at DWCS“Sal, we’ve had title fights in here, and I don’t know if it’s ever been as loud as it was tonight,” White said of the arena, which was packed with former and current UFC staff, after Everett’s win.View Tweet: https://t.co/PgbwKifGhw“Everybody at the UFC loves you, you’re a great kid. Forget fighting and the contract, you’re a great human being.“This could not happen to a better person. You have worked your way from the bottom up. You could not have won more impressively.“It’s kind of weird because you’re already at the UFC, but Sal, welcome to the UFC.”Everett recently left the UFC as an employee to pursue his fighting dream, having found his feet at Vegas-based MMA promotion Tuff-N-Uff after four amateur bouts under the same banner.“Hey boss, I’m ready to be in the UFC,” the welterweight said during his post-fight interview.“The whole division, you know my name. I’m not backing down from any challenges.”Everett has gone from the UFC’s office to the Octagon and now joins the ranks as a new threat at 170lbsGettyWhite explained during the event’s press conference that he was so happy Everett won that he got up and walked right out of the arena to avoid overcelebrating.White: I didn’t wanna jump around like a girl“Sal, I don’t know if any of you have had the opportunity to meet him or get to know him, he’s one of the greatest kids ever and it couldn’t happen to a better person,” he added.“I don’t want to be out there f***ing jumping around like a little girl after he wins.“I actually contemplated going back to Ozzy’s dressing room and saying, ‘I understand how you’re probably feeling right now, but you determine whether you get in here or not — we don’t.’“But I said maybe he needs to feel like we’re all against him so I shouldn’t mess with any of this and I left him alone.”The UFC CEO said the sky is the limit for Everett if he keeps up the same level of performance.White also handed out three other contracts after the same number of first-round finishes at DWCS Season 10, Week 9GettyFrom office to OctagonEverett told the Spinnin Backfist MMA Show he first applied to work for the UFC in 2019, but didn’t land a job until two years later through a third-party security agency.Soon after, he became White’s personal runner, balancing his boss’s errands with his entry to the professional MMA world. “I’m stocking [White’s] fridges, taking his laundry to his house, picking it up from his cleaners, and taking stuff like that,” Everett said of his responsibilities.“Doing small errands for him, things that he can’t or doesn’t have time for.”White said he will likely only see Everett again in the UFC’s Performance Institute and his new contract is enough to keep him as a fighter for good.talkSPORT's UFC pound-for-pound rankingstalkSPORT.com has collectively voted on the best fighters to form a regularly updated UFC pound-for-pound (P4P) rankings system for the rest of 2026 and beyond.Our P4P list will be updated regularly based on performances in the Octagon — with wins, records, title wins and defences, calibre of opponents, methods of victory and much more all determining who makes it.UFC champions Islam Makhachev, Joshua Van and Sean Strickland feature – but big stars such as Alex Pereira and Tom Aspinall miss out.