Sal Everett went from keeping UFC fighters safe as a security guard to becoming one himself. And on Tuesday night, he finally got the moment he’d been chasing. The 4-0 welterweight prospect absolutely wrecked Ozzy Martin with a vicious knockout in the opening round of their fight at DWCS 95, punching his ticket to the UFC in the process.

And nobody seemed happier to see it happen than Dana White, who has known Everett for years and could barely hide his excitement after watching his guy turn his dream into reality.

“That’s why I got up and walked out right after he won,” White said at the post-fight press conference. “I don’t want to be overly celebrating; this other kid got knocked out, and he came in to compete here.

“But all my guys in Boston were blowing me up, saying, ‘Your boy’s in trouble tonight. This guy’s a real guy. He’s tough.’ And, you know, 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. So I’m happy for him.”

The 29-year-old has had a pretty wild road to the UFC. Before he was knocking guys out inside the cage, he was working security for Dana White. Eventually, he even became White’s personal runner.

But Everett wasn’t just hanging around the UFC while working the day job. He kept chasing his own MMA dream on the side, building a perfect 4-0 record before getting his shot on DWCS 95.

Standing across from him in the co-main event was another unbeaten prospect in Ozzy Martin, who also walked into the Apex at 4-0.

Sal Everett had five years on Martin, but there was nothing soft about the matchup.

If the brutal finish made it look easy afterwards, the fight certainly wasn’t supposed to be. For 117 seconds, Martin made ‘Bundy’ work for it. The undefeated prospect showed exactly why Dana White’s Boston contacts had been blowing up his phone before the fight, warning him that his guy was in for a real test.

Sal Everett eventually found the knockout with a powerful right hook, but this was anything but a handpicked opponent he could just steamroll. And for the UFC CEO, this was the payoff to a relationship that had been years in the making.

The head honcho had backed Everett’s MMA dreams since his amateur days, even helping him get access to the UFC Performance Institute around his third amateur fight. The 29-year-old went from working the graveyard shift around the UFC Apex and looking into the Octagon wondering what it would be like to fight in there to finally doing exactly that and walking out with a UFC contract.

“It’s kind of weird,” White said while handing out the contract. “Because you’re already at the UFC, but Sal, welcome to the UFC.”

Dana White’s reaction inside the Apex pretty much said it all. The UFC boss shot out of his seat the second Martin hit the canvas, celebrating with the crowd before quickly making his exit. He clearly wanted to enjoy the moment but didn’t want to rub salt in the wound after seeing another fighter get brutally knocked out.

And apparently, the UFC CEO wasn’t the only one who thought Everett had a serious fight on his hands. Even matchmaker Sean Shelby had been warning him that this was a genuine 50-50 matchup.

“Everybody, even Sean Shelby… like, we’d be walking down the halls, and Sean was like, ‘Just letting you know, he’s in a f—— fight. This is easily 50-50,’” White continued. “And then all my Boston guys were blowing me up that know the kid and were saying, ‘He’s a tough kid. Sal earned it.’”

Dana White also loved the way Sal Everett handled the finish. There was no wild follow-up, no unnecessary extra shots. ‘Bundy’ landed the bomb, saw Ozzy Martin was done, and simply stood there watching.

“And even that shot. He hits him with that shot and then just watches him,” Dana White added. “He doesn’t try to jump on him, defend. He knew. Couldn’t have had a more bada– performance.”

The knockout was enough to punch Everett’s ticket to the UFC, making him one of four fighters from DWCS 95 on Tuesday night to earn contracts. The other three were: light heavyweight Preston LaGrange, bantamweight Mateus Soares, and flyweight Roque Conceicao.

And with the show’s 10th anniversary season rolling into DWCS 96, the number of fighters to earn UFC deals through the promotion has already climbed to 42.

And while the UFC contract was the reward Sal Everett had been chasing, it could also completely change what comes next for him.

Dana White wants Sal Everett to leave his UFC office job and focus on fighting

And now, after years of juggling both worlds, Sal Everett finally has a chance to leave the day job behind and make MMA his full-time life.

Before earning his UFC contract, ‘Bundy’ had to balance his fighting ambitions with his job inside the promotion, even burning through his paid time off and sick leave just to create enough room for a proper training camp.

“I used all my PTO and sick time to get like a month off and just lock in on this fight, and Dana and Nicole fully backed me behind it,” Everett said at the post-fight press conference. “And yeah, it all worked out perfect because I was able to focus on training a few times a day.”

Dana White also made it clear that the 29-year-old’s days of juggling an office job with his fighting career could finally be over. With a UFC contract now in hand, the head honcho suggested Sal Everett should be able to step away from his day job and make fighting his full-time priority.

“I think that this contract changes his life to where he doesn’t have to work at the office,” White said. “I think that, when we run into Sal now, it’ll be at the PI training.

“If he’s gonna really do this and take a run, now he’s got a contract that actually pays him enough money to make a living and support his family. Then he needs to take this serious and go.”

But now comes the hard part. All that goodwill ‘Bundy’ has built inside the UFC has to turn into results once the cage door closes. With Dana White and several UFC executives already in his corner, there’s inevitably going to be extra attention on what Sal Everett does next — and some people will always wonder if he got a little help along the way.

White, though, doesn’t seem interested in Everett worrying about any of that.

“People, they’re gonna talk s— about you no matter what,” he added. “So that’s the last thing Sal needs to worry about. He went in there and earned that tonight.”

The 29-year-old’s road to the UFC has been anything but ordinary. He’s no longer the security guard or office employee standing on the sidelines, watching fighters walk into the Octagon and wondering what it would feel like to be one of them.

‘Bundy’ burned through his PTO, trained multiple times a day and went through a real test against another unbeaten prospect. Now, after years of watching from the other side of the cage, Sal Everett finally gets to find out just how far he can take this.