The latest season of Dana White’s Contender Series continued with some memorable highlights on Tuesday night in Las Vegas.
DWCS, the inaugural season of which took place back in 2017, sees some of the top prospects in mixed martial arts enter the cage in front of White and the matchmakers, looking to put in a performance worthy of a place on the UFC roster.
Last year’s edition saw 46 fighters bag a deal with the sport’s premier promotion across 10 events, up on the 43 from 2022. Through eight episodes of season eight, 34 prospects moved a step closer to their title dreams on MMA’s biggest stage.
And the ninth added another five talents to the UFC roster. That included German welterweight Islam Dulatov, who delivered the highlight of the night by brutally knocking out Vanilto Antunes with an elbow, making good on his "The Ripper" moniker.
There were three other finishes on the card, all of which earned the victors contracts. Also at 170 pounds, Kody Steele's TKO of Chasen Blair was enough to forge his path into the UFC, as was a first-round knockout for heavyweight prospect Mario Pinto.
A big storyline heading into this week's episode was the curtain-closer, which featured Artem Vakhitov. The former Glory Kickboxing champion was the last man to defeat Alex Pereira prior to his MMA transition, and he's now pursuing similar success to "Poatan" in the cage.
In front of the Brazilian, who was cageside, the Russian stopped Islam Masraf with strikes inside round one. When granting Vakhitov a contract, White noted that Pereira had given his stamp of approval and pushed for his former rival's signing.
The first fight of the night was the only contest not to produce a new athlete, with Australia's Sean Gauci not doing enough in his decision win over Anthony Drilich to impress the UFC boss.
With that in mind, see below for the results and moments that landed four athletes contracts with the UFC.