Jibreel “Anszar” Talbot is chasing a place in Bermuda history as the island’s first professional mixed martial arts fighter.

Talbot ended a four-year hiatus with a first-round submission of fellow Bermudian Jashun Thomas in the main event of Devil’s Isle Fight Championship at North Field, National Sports Centre, on Saturday night.

Before the fight, the middleweight trained overseas with American Top Team Atlanta under the mentorship of Brantley Furr.

“I’m trying to go pro in the next three to six months,” Talbot told The Royal Gazette.

“I just recently started training with American Top Team at Douglas Lima’s gym in Atlanta. But I haven’t put much time in there yet because I came to Bermuda to do some work, but it’s time to go back.

“If this fight didn’t happen, I would have already been out there with American Top Team. Within a month or two months, I would have been having the first pro bout and see what the coaches say from there.

“It’ll be awesome for me to turn pro as that’s kind of the dream. There’s no MMA here, when you tell people you’re from Bermuda, they go, ‘The Triangle? Where’s that?’, it would be nice to fix that.”

Before his 2022 break, Talbot went 2-2 as an amateur in the United States, where he completed his high school and college education. He registered victories over John Gunther and Jonathan Forbing, but came up short when he faced Tanner Gilley and Carlton Terrance.

Since there is no MMA in Bermuda, the freestyle fighter makes use of whatever resources are available whenever he is on island.

“There’s no MMA gyms here, so I go to Fight City when I’m in Bermuda,” the 25-year-old said.

“They do Muay Thai, so I just go there, do some sparring with whoever is available. Then Bermuda Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, I get good rolling in with them.

“I was at Bermuda Ju-Jitsu Club before them and the Bermuda Sanshou Association before that.”

With DIFC founder Na’twuan “Nate” Fisher looking to build on the success of Bermuda’s first fully sanctioned cage fighting event, Talbot has committed to future cards.

“I’ll be a part of every event they throw in future,” the aspiring pro said.

“MMA is life for me, so whenever they have an event, I’ll be in my weight class if there’s someone I can fight.”