Dana White’s Contender Series got off to an electric start, with four contracts being awarded.
There was much anticipation heading into the opening week of Season 8, with many of the athletes competing having an abundance of stoppage wins on their records.
Lone’er Kavanagh opened the show in seriously impressive style, brutally knocking out An Tuan Ho just 2:35 into their contest. After a small feeling out process, Kavanagh appeared to be waiting for Ho to make his move before looking to come back with some big counter strikes, but it was when the 25-year-old went on the front foot he really found success. As he stepped into range, Kavanagh threw a left hook which landed flush on the chin and instantly rendered Ho unconscious and received a huge reaction from UFC CEO, Dana White, who was sitting cage side. It was apparent from White’s instant reaction that he loved what he saw from the former Cage Warriors Flyweight and this was confirmed when Kavanagh was welcomed to the UFC post fight.
The Kavanagh knock out set the standard for the night and Jose Delgado found himself delivering a huge finish in the second bout of the evening. The 26-year-old brought an unrelenting pace to the fight from the first bell, and he comfortably took the first round. As the second round started, the ferocity of Delgado showed no signs of letting up and just shy of 90 seconds into the second round, he fired a big knee up the middle which connected with Juarez’s jaw and sent him falling to the mat. The performance impressed White and Delgado was also offered a contract.
Bruno Lopes was the third man of the night to have his hand raised with a second stoppage against Mikheil Sazhiniani. The returning Brazilian dropped the first round to Sazhiniani but had landed some leg kicks throughout the opening 5 minutes. As the second round started, Lopes came out stronger and was having much more success. With a little under a minute left on the clock, Lopes landed a nice body shot and followed it up with a flurry of punches that forced the referee to step in. Post fight, White admitted he does not usually look to signs athletes who may be regarded as being on the back nine of their career but he liked what he saw from Lopes and decided to give him a shot in the UFC.
The main event pitted two extremely talented athletes against each other as Mansur Abdul-Malik faced Wes Schultz. Pre-fight, it was widely thought that the bout would be a barn burner, with 9 first round finishes between the two. For the first time in his professional career, Abdul-Malik Once entered the second round but after a short grappling exchange, the 28-year-old ended up in full mount and reigned down some devastating elbows which brought an end to proceedings. Clearly showing his raw talent throughout the contest, Abdul-Malik also earned a UFC contract.
In the only decision of the night, Rami Hamed defeated Meng Ding by way of unanimous decision. Although White respected the fact that Hamed too the fight on short notice and that he managed to grind out a decision win, the UFC CEO felt as though he did not see enough to award a contract. White said: “When you come on to this show, you have to show me what you got, show me who you are, show me that you want it, and you definitely have to show me at 33-years-old. I didn’t see any of that tonight and… not today brother.”
You can see Dana White announce the UFC contract winners, below:
