You only get one Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debut!
Two rookies debuted in “Space City” yesterday (Sat., Feb 21, 2026) at UFC Houston, which took place inside the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. UFC’s latest batch of newbies went 1-1, with one suffering a brutal knockout.
Now that the dust has settled, let’s grade their respective performances below:
Josiah Harrell
After enduring a career rollercoaster that saw him signed, released due to a rare brain condition, and ultimately claw his way back to the UFC, Josiah Harrell finally made his long-awaited debut.
Unfortunately, it couldn’t have gone much worse.
Taking the fight on short notice against highly touted prospect Jacoby Smith, Harrell showed flashes early — including a sharp body kick and forward pressure. But he made a critical mistake attempting to wrestle a decorated grappler. Though he briefly secured a takedown, Smith quickly reversed position and detonated brutal ground-and-pound that rendered Harrell unconscious just three minutes into the bout. (watch highlights). The damage was significant enough to send Harrell to the hospital.
Context matters. Smith looks like the real deal, and this was a tough stylistic matchup on limited preparation time. Still, from a debut standpoint, it’s hard to spin this positively.
There’s still time for Harrell to rebound — perhaps against someone like Nikolay Veretennikov for his next outing — but as far as first impressions go, this was a rough one.
Final Grade: F
Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani
Fresh off a vicious knockout on Season 9 of Contender Series (watch highlights), Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani entered his UFC debut with real buzz.
His performance against nine-fight UFC veteran Phil Rowe wasn’t spectacular — but it was effective.
Lebosnoyani mixed in thudding body kicks, an overhand right, and timely takedowns to edge out a split decision win (one that should have been unanimous). In Round 1, he landed a takedown midway through and unloaded heavy ground-and-pound. While Rowe used his 80-inch reach to create problems at range, “JPL” stayed aggressive throughout.
He didn’t dominate, and he had multiple takedowns stuffed in rounds two and three, but he showed composure on the feet and stuck to a smart game plan. For an elite grappler facing a tricky striker, it was nice to see Lebosnoyani be comfortable on his feet.
I’m not sold on Lebosnoyani, though, and I think other unranked Welterweights could give him major problems, especially on the feet.
UFC should rebook him with Austin Vanderford for his sophomore outing.
Final Grade: C+
