Category Archives: Dana White’s Contender Series

Dana White's Contender Series

Dana White’s Contender Series Results: Three More Fighters Score a UFC Deal

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Week 9 of Dana White’s Contender Series 2020 aired on Tuesday night. As far as DWCS cards this season have gone, the 35th installment of the show was an interesting one.

A last minute replacement, Natan Levy stepped up, preventing a rehash of the previous week, which saw just four fights. Mariusz Ksiazkiewicz looked to be the next Canadian to win a UFC contract, after the success of T.J. Laramie earlier this year. Joseph Lowry was getting his second look on the show, after coming up short against Devonte Smith previously. And Danny Sabatello vs. Taylor Moore was a fight that was practically UFC-level in all but name.

Replacement fighter Natan Levy managed to get Shaheen Santana down in the opening round of their lightweight scrap. From there, he worked on a kimura, americana, and generally showed a great top game. Lots of control time, and a fair bit of ground n’ pound, won the round for Levy, after a bit of a shakey start on the feet. In the second, Levy showed some power in his kicks before pursuing a takedown but after being rocked, Santana managed to take Levy’s back while standing, locking in a body triangle. Santana transitioned to an arm-bar, but Levy was out quickly enough, leaving him on top once again. In the third round, Levy finally sealed the deal. Once again on top, he locked in an arm-triangle choke, and put Santana to sleep!

Dana White’s Contender Series Season 4, Week 9 Results

Mário Sousa def. Mariusz Ksiazkiewicz by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Natan Levy def. Shaheen Santana by technical submission (arm-triangle choke), Round 3, 0:55
Nikolas Motta def. Joe Lowry by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Luana Pinheiro def. Stephanie Frausto by knockout, Round 1, 2:48
Danny Sabatello def. Taylor Moore by unanimous decision (30-24, 30-25, 30-26)

Dana White's Contender Series, Ultimate Fighting Championship

Dana White’s Contender Series: Week 8 Preview

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Now that the UFC is back in Vegas, Dana White’s Contender Series gets to resume to end the run for the year. This should add some more action for the week if you’re in the market for more fights during your week and care to see the new crop of exciting prospects.

And what a crop this is. Main event honors for this week go to Carlos Ulberg (2-0), a City Kickboxing rep and teammate of UFC champions Israel Adesanya and Alex Volkanovski. While his mixed martial arts record is shallow, he’s quite the exciting kickboxer that’s been doing damage and looks to stay on the MMA side of things. But first he’s got to square off with Brazil’s Bruno Oliveira (8-1), who only last year had his first and only fight stateside for Titan FC. That fight was a tough one to watch because maybe the ref had better things to think about during the fight. Also a teammate of former RIZIN talent and Jungle Fight champ Bruno Cappelozza, Oliveira has a fair amount of polish on his striking but may be overpowered here. His game on the ground may be enough to get him by, but Ulberg seems to be the more technical and disciplined of the two, and clearly the one with the better support system and coaching staff.

The co-main event is another one of the strange fights we’ve been treated to in the Contender Series, with Chilean Ignacio Bahamondes (10-3). Training out of Illinois along with Alejandro Flores and Yair Rodriguez, he’s got patience, some slick hands and not-quite-great takedown defense but can work his way back up off the floor. He’s still green, but has a fair amount of hope as a prospect. And his opponent is Edson Gomez, a fighter that has a MMA record of 6-1 despite being a pro since 2015. His first few fights were in Gladiator Challenge, then he moved up to King of the Cage. One of his Gladiator Challenge opponents was 0-8 at the time, and his bounceback fight after his lone loss in King of the Cage was against another fighter who at the time was 2-5. He’s a strong striker that muscles his way through takedowns, but this is an odd matchup from top to bottom. Perhaps Gomez has an impressive enough set of finishes for the brass to overlook everything else here, but there’s almost always a fight on these cards that has a handful of red flags, and this is it.