In late April 2002, Cabbage was invited to compete in the "SuperBrawl 24: Return of the Heavyweights" tournament held over two consecutive days in Honolulu. He TKO'd Kevin Jordan in the tournament's first round and caused Travis Wiuff to tap with knee strikes in the quarter-finals but was unable to fight in the semis due to an injury sustained. When a knockout of Kauai Kupihea the following month improved his record to 7-3 with six knockouts, he was signed by the Ultimate Fighting Championship and debuted against Tim Sylvia, the man who won the SuperBrawl tournament, at "UFC 39" in Uncasville, Connecticut on September 27, 2002. The bout was the "Fight of the Night" as Correira took everything Sylvia could dish out for the first round. Cabbage's corner threw in the towel nearly two minutes into the second round after he took too much abuse. As he took such a heavy beating without ever being knocked down, commentator Mike Goldberg exclaimed during the fight "this man is not human!". In fact, during the seven minutes the fight lasted, Correira absorbed the highest number of power strikes ever recorded in one fight in UFC history.