The ninth season of Dana White's Contender Series kicked off on Tuesday evening at the UFC APEX, as the next wave of hopefuls looked to follow the path blazed by dozens of standouts over the last several years from Tuesday night in Las Vegas to taking on the best in the world inside the UFC Octagon.
Last year, 42 competitors garnered contracts across the season’s 10 events, with winners like Mansur Abdul-Malik, Jose Delgado, and Malcolm Wellmaker already having made a serious impact since transitioning onto the roster. To date, 276 athletes heard UFC President Dana White call their names at the end of the night, with another 11 joining those ranks through a three-event, all-Brazilian miniseries in 2018, and this evening, 10 more athletes across three divisions made the walk in hopes of being the first members of the DWCS Class of ’25.
It didn’t take White long to make his decisions for Week 1 and much like on Season 6, the UFC President came out hot, calling it a weird night before offering his assessments of Tuesday’s victors. After passing on both Yuri Panferov and Radley Da Silva, White welcomed Ty Miller to the UFC roster, suggesting he make a trip to the UFC PI, before stating that he had the fight between Ilian Bouafia and Neemias Santana a draw, declining to offer Bouafia a contract.
He then circled back to Baisangur Suserkaev, singing the unbeaten Chechen middleweight prospect’s praises, saying that he saved the first episode of Season 9 while promising to get him booked quickly.
It was a strange night to kick things off, and we’ve got the details on how things played out collected for you below.
This page will be updated live throughout the night with full fight recaps, scorecards, plus interviews with Dana White and tonight’s contract winners.
The featured bout between Ilian Bouafia and Neemias Santana started with a little controversy and morphed into a stunted clash between two clearly talented, but often hesitant middleweight prospects.
Early in the first round, Santana took Bouafia to the ground, where he promptly headbutted the Algerian-born prospect. Referee Jason Herzog paused the action and took a point, giving Bouafia time to recover before the fight resumed.
From the time the fight restarted, the duo vacillated between long periods of not really engaging and short bursts of offense. Santana landed a little more while trying to goad Bouafia into engaging, while the Paris-based youngster countered with solid variety, but very limited output.
When the scores were added up, it was Bouafia who came out ahead, earning a clean sweep of the scorecards. He maintains his unbeaten record and clearly has upside, but it will be interesting to hear Dana White’s thoughts on the bout and where he sees Bouafia.
Ty Miller stayed fluid and snappy behind his long punches, steadily piling up the damage against tough Yonkers native Jimmy Drago in Tuesday’s penultimate matchup.
It took a couple minutes — and one clean shot from Drago — for the undefeated FitNHB representative to settle into the fight, but once he did, the 25-year-old really started to showcase his hands. Throwing in combination and frequently stinging Drago, Miller displayed excellent poise and patience, only ramping up the output once he clearly had his durable opponent hurt.
Though he wasn’t able to get a finish, Miller clearly dominated the action the whole way through, earning a sweep of the scorecards and an impressive victory to remain undefeated. He’s got an exciting style and an unblemished record with plenty of room for growth ahead of him, so it will be interesting to see if this effort is enough to garner Miller a contract at the end of the night.
Baisangur Susurkaev scored the first finish of the season, folding Murtaza Talha with a teep kick to the midsection in the opening round of Tuesday’s third bout.
Talha, who competed at light heavyweight two seasons ago, losing to Rodolfo Bellato, began the fight by catching a kick, closing the distance and looking to keep Susurkaev stapled to the fence. But the Chechen middleweight worked free and once they were into space, he got after Talha, hitting him with open-handed strikes to the side of the head before delivering a front kick to the bread basket that immediately ended the fight.
This was an impressive finish from the undefeated prospect, who prepared for this one alongside a host of UFC standouts at Kill Cliff FC in South Florida. Now 9-0 as a professional, this was a massive win for “Hunter.”
BFL featherweight champ Radley Da Silva handed Australian prospect George Mangos the first loss of his professional career on Tuesday, grinding out the first two rounds before surviving for much of the final frame.
Da Silva had an easy time taking Mangos to the canvas in each of the first two rounds, reading and reacting to the 21-year-old’s scrambles and attacks to keep him stapled to the canvas, though he failed to register any meaningful damage. Mangos was able to get on the offensive in the third, working to Da Silva’s back and threatening with chokes while landing a smattering of strikes, only to fall short of finding the finish.
All three judges scored the fight the same, giving Da Silva the first two rounds, awarding the Vancouver native his eighth straight victory. It’s a quality win over a promising, young fighter, but it remains to be seen if it’s going to be enough to secure the opportunity to compete at the next level next time out.
Yuri Panferov turned his second appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series into a triumphant one, mixing things up well to get the better of Chilean mauler Chris Ewert in an all-out brawl to open the season.
Early in the fight, it was Panferov’s speed and diversity with his boxing that got the better of things as he touched up Ewert to the body, opening the door to land upstairs. He shifted to his wrestling in the back half of the round and worked to replicate that effort the rest of the way, having similar success in the second before things got a little more competitive in the third.
The middleweight bangers went the distance, but the outcome was never in doubt, as all three judges scored the fight in favor of Panferov. After starting quickly and suffering a loss to Torrez Finney in his first appearance, “The Russian Polar Bear” picked up the win to start Season 9.
Now we wait to see if he’ll pick up a contract at the end of the night.
