Four more athletes added themselves to the UFC roster on week 2 Dana White’s Contender Series.
After an exciting first week of Season 8, 10 more athletes stepped inside the octagon looking to impress UFC CEO Dana White and the matchmakers in order to earn a UFC contract.
For the second week in a row, the opening bout did not make it out of the first round, as Cody Haddon stopped Billy Brand with a rear naked choke just over three minutes into the first round. White revealed it was in fact Sean Shelby who had put the matchup together, having been extremely impressed with what he had seen from both men on the domestic scene. After catching Brand with a clean shot, Haddon quickly worked to establish a slick rear naked choke and force the tap and the performance earned him a contract.
In one of two fights of the night that went to decision, Cortavious Romious defeated Michael Imperato by way of unanimous decision. Both men had it all to prove with Romious returning after defeat on the last season and Imperato looking to earn a UFC contract for a second time. The contest saw the pair display their well-rounded games, with elements of their striking, wrestling and grappling all on display.
Although it was a relatively close contest, Romious got the nod on all three judges score cards in every round. White hailed Romious one of the most gifted athletes he had ever seen but questioned the 30-year-old’s fight IQ. Intrigued by what he could develop into with the right training team and top-class development, White decided to sign Romanis, much to the delight of him and his team.
Rizvan Kuniev entered the show on the back of a lot of hype, being the Heavyweight champion on Khabib Nurmagomedov’s promotion Eagle FC. The Russian dominated the round before catching Hugo Cunha with a big knee to the body, before following up with a barrage of strikes and earned the stoppage with just 1 second left on the clock in the first round. White liked what he saw and Kuniev became the latest man to be added to the promotion’s Heavyweight division.
Alexander Gustaffson closed out the show with a second round stoppage against Pat Pytlik. Closing the distance at any given opportunity, Gustaffson done most of his work in the clinch, wearing down the Canadian in the first round before stopping him in the second with some vicious knees.White admitted that whilst the contest was playing out, he was unsure about Gustaffson’s gameplan but once he saw the damage the Swedishman had done, he realised that the gameplan was perfect. As the UFC CEO has mentioned several times, he is not looking to sign 30 something prospects, unless they can seriously impress him, and Gustaffson done just that and earned a contract.
The only victorious athlete not to earn a contract was Tyler Finney. White had some stern words for the American when explaining the decision not to award him a contract, he said:
“Finney. Now, you were here last year and my recommendation to you was to go out and get some experience. You’re young, you’re obviously talented, you’re now 9-0. You got 1 fight. You went out in one year and fought 1 fight and you know, I am always brutally honest with this stuff, you get absolutely decimated in the UFC with the performance you put on tonight. Your performance last year, was better than this performance. You’re 25 years old kid, you’re obviously a talented athlete, go out and get three or four fights this year then come back and talk to us about the UFC.
You gassed out tonight, you had a tough time getting through three rounds. You’re not ready for the UFC. When I said go out and get some experience, I did not mean one fight, I meant get some fights. We will see you soon.”
