Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10 continues tonight with Week 8 from the Meta APEX in Las Vegas, where undefeated Englishman George Staines headlines against Loai Abushaar.
The card starts at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT and streams on Paramount+. All ten fighters made weight at Monday’s weigh-ins, and UFC News posted the official numbers.
The stakes are contracts. Dana White has handed out 34 through seven weeks, and only three weeks remain, counting this one. Last year’s season produced 46 UFC contracts, and UFC.com’s Week 8 preview notes this season is on pace for a new high.
Last Tuesday’s card signed both fighters in two separate bouts, a first for the show, while main event winner Norbert Novenyi Jr. left without a deal. Week 6 set the finishing bar early, with Akbar Abdullaev’s 19-second knockout prompting White to call him possibly the best talent in Contender Series history.
The Full Fight Card
George Staines vs. Loai Abushaar (Lightweight, Main Event)
Staines, 26, arrives 10-0 out of Next Generation MMA in Liverpool, where he is a regular training partner of UFC lightweight Paddy Pimblett. The Hull native signed an exclusive multi-fight deal with Cage Warriors in July 2025, and his last win was a second-round submission of previously undefeated Conor McCarthy at Cage Warriors 207 in June. Pimblett publicly backed him on Instagram ahead of the fight.
Abushaar, 7-1, trains at MMA Lab in Arizona and stands 6-foot-4, a three-inch height edge over Staines. He is on a four-fight finishing streak, with three of those wins coming in the first round.
Adama Diop vs. Zaurbek Sabanov (Heavyweight)
Diop, 31, is 6-1 out of Dakar, Senegal, with a Senegalese wrestling background, five knockouts and heavyweight titles in EFC and Hexagone. Sabanov, 28, is 4-0 out of Vladikavkaz, Russia, with three straight knockouts. UFC.com describes him as a well-rounded pressure fighter who is comfortable on the feet or the ground, and he opened as the betting favorite.
Ian Escuza vs. Luca Borando (Featherweight)
Escuza, 30, is 7-0 out of Lima, Peru, with seven finishes and the Inka FC title. He knocked out Octavio Lopez in 27 seconds in the Inka FC 58 main event, and his arsenal includes spinning attacks, knees and elbows.
Borando, 26, is 9-1 out of Rome by way of Milan and carries a five-fight knockout streak into the cage. His most recent win came by elbow on July 4 at Cage Warriors 209, when he stopped Leandro Camargo in the first round.
Aieza Bertolso vs. Camila Reynoso (Women’s Strawweight)
Bertolso, 25, is 7-0 out of Brazil and won the LFA strawweight title in September 2025 with a second-round armbar of Lany Silva. She is a submission grappler who took this fight on short notice.
Reynoso is 9-1 out of Buenos Aires and was an alternate on this season’s The Ultimate Fighter. She prefers to strike and enters on a three-fight winning streak.
Ilias Bulaid vs. Erick Visconde (Featherweight)
Bulaid, 31, is 9-0 with one no contest. The Moroccan-Dutch fighter is a former K-1 World Grand Prix finalist and Enfusion champion who won the LFL interim featherweight title in April with a first-round knee TKO of Wellyton Junior. Both he and Visconde came in at 146 pounds Monday.
Visconde, 29, is 17-3 out of Brazil, and all three losses came at bantamweight. He won the LFA featherweight title with a split decision over then-unbeaten Gustavo Pintos at LFA 232 in May.
