Week 3 of Dana White’s Contender Series delivered a full house of UFC contract winners, with each of the night’s five winners finishing the night with a contract from UFC President and CEO Dana White.
The featured bout of the night saw the biggest upset in Contender Series history, as bantamweight Alex Apodaca defeated -6000 favorite Bella Mir to earn herself a UFC contract as she capped off another remarkable night of fights at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas.
WATCH: DWCS Post-Fight Press Conference
Joining Apocada on the UFC roster are fellow victors Nick Galanti, Ronald Humphrey, Sean Clancy Jr. and Guilherme Uriel, with each of that quartet earning their respective contracts with big finishes.
Week 3 kicked off with a bang, courtesy of Cage Fury Fighting Championships middleweight champion Nick Galante, who needed just 35 seconds to get the Meta APEX crowd off their seats as he flattened Carlos Petruzzella to claim a huge first-round knockout victory.
Galanti didn’t waste any time as he came out of his corner and, after reacting to a Petruzzella body kick, shot in for a takedown. Petruzzella defended well to keep things standing, but Galanti had something for him on the feet, too.
With Petruzzella backed up against the fence, Galanti switched from wrestling to striking as he unloaded a massive right hook that sent his man crashing to the canvas.
And, with referee Keith Peterson trying to get a good angle to view the state of Petruzzella, Galanti didn’t stand on ceremony. Instead, he moved in and unloaded a blistering barrage of ground strikes to finish the job and claim a stunning first-round knockout victory.
The fighting son of former Strikeforce athlete Ron “Abongo” Humphrey, Ronald Humphrey showcased his own brand of high-octane offense as he beat up, then submitted, Alexis Miranda in vicious fashion in the first round of their welterweight matchup.
Miranda promised to lean on his boxing skills during the contest, and opened up with a quick double-jab-right-hand combination, but Humphrey answered immediately by stepping in, picking him up and slamming him powerfully to the mat.
Miranda managed to fight his way to his feet, and was immediately punished with a knee to the head, but eventually the pair separated and started to throw strikes.
Miranda let his hands go from range and connected with a couple of solid shots to the body, but Humphrey took him back down, then hit Miranda with successive knees as he battled to his feet once again. Miranda stood, arms outstretched, as if to say, “Is that all you’ve got?“. If that was the question, Humphrey had an emphatic answer.
He busted up Miranda with a nasty elbow, then dropped him with a stiff shot. Then, after getting his hands on him, Humphrey picked Miranda up and slammed him to the mat again. And with the fight on the mat, Humphrey worked his way to the back of his battered and bloody opponent and locked up a tight rear-naked choke to force the tap for a violent, statement-making, first-round submission victory.
Cage Warriors welterweight champion Sean Clancy Jr. added another finish to his record as the undefeated Scot continued his 100 percent finish record with a second-round TKO finish of Gary Balletto in their welterweight bout.
After a cagey opening minute, Clancy started to find his range with his kicks, with one thumping kick to the body, followed by another upstairs as he kept Balletto on the outside. The Scot then found his mark with a counter hook as Balletto looked to step in.
Clancy showcased the striking tools in his arsenal as he mixed in question-mark kicks, calf kicks and snapping front kicks to the body, while looking to counter Balletto with punches as the Rhode Island native moved into range.
Round 2 started with Clancy mixing things up as he shot in for a takedown, where he showed off his ground work by moving through side control to back mount to full mount, before raining down some heavy elbows from top position.
Clancy continued to punish Balletto from full mount, as he turned up the volume and hammered his man with nasty punches and elbows until referee Keith Peterson stepped in to spare a bloodied-up Balletto further punishment.
It was a display of controlled, clinical offense as he improved his record to 9-0 with the sixth KO/TKO finish of his career.
Heavyweight Contender Series returnees Mario Piazzon and Guilherme Uriel went head to head looking to make their second chance count, and it was an emotional Uriel who took the victory in dramatic fashion inside the opening minute of the contest.
As soon as the action got underway, Piazzon shot in instantly, but Uriel saw it coming and immediately snatched up his neck, and didn’t let go.
The night’s featured bout saw rising combat sports prodigy Bella Mir step into the Octagon to take on Alex Apodaca and, despite the huge levels of expectation that followed Mir into the Meta APEX, it was Apodaca who upset the odds to claim the biggest upset in Contender Series history after outbattling Mir over the full three-round distance.
Throughout the bout, Apodaca presented a constantly changing target as she switched stances and mixed up her strikes on her feet, and demonstrated excellent takedown defense as she stuffed Mir’s shots and stayed calm during the grappling exchanges to ensure she kept out of submission trouble against the noted wrestler and UFC BJJ contender.
The longer the bout went on, the more Apodaca grew in confidence. Through the second round she started to mix up her targets from head to body as she sapped Mir’s gas tank with some thumping kicks to the midsection, while still scoring with snappy punches upstairs.
Mir connected with plenty of shots of her own, too, but despite appearing to land the heavier strikes, Apodaca’s work scored more effectively throughout the contest. The evidence was there for all to see at the end of the fight, with Mir left bleeding from the mouth and nose.
Apodaca had to demonstrate her submission defense once again as Mir went for a late submission, but she maintained her composure down the stretch, and even managed to land a final few strikes off her back as the final seconds counted down.
After a fascinating 15 minutes of battle, the judges were called into action, and all three were in agreement as they scored the fight 29-28 to Apodaca, who cashed as a huge +1200 underdog – the biggest in Contender Series history.
