Week four of this year’s instalment of Dana White’s Contender Series delivered some big upsets and one of the show’s most memorable knockouts.
Whilst it was Yuneisy Duben that stole all the headlines with her one-punch knockout over Shannon Clark, the evening’s opener set the tone.
The first fight between Quillan Salkilld and Gauge Young was a high-level and super competitive three-round affair in the lightweight division.
Though Salkilld earned the win and thus, his place on the UFC roster, the UFC boss went into the Octagon after the fight to give praise to both men – something he rarely does.
Dana White Says The Shots Landing Between Salkilld & Young Were Comparable To Ngannou vs Miocic 2
In his post-fight press conference after the event, Dana White spoke about how impressed he was by this fight from both men’s perspectives.
The opening bout of the card has delivered great fights or moments across season 8 of the series and this one was no different.
To emphasize how powerful and durable both men were, White described the impact of some of the shots that they were both landing and receiving across the 15-minute duration.
He compared the sound of these strikes to when Francis Ngannou met Stipe Miocic in a rematch for the heavyweight title back at UFC 260, which took place in a near-vacant UFC Apex due to the restrictions for hosting live events at the time.
“Both of those kids were 24 years old and you know, my thing was however the judges score this fight, however this plays out, both of you have a bright future in this sport. Both durable, tough guys, well-rounded no matter where the fight went. Head kicks, eating nasty head kicks, the body shots that both of those took, the punches. I mean when they hit each other with some of those right hands, it sounded like heavyweights. It reminded me of the night that Francis and Stipe fought in here. When Francis and Stipe were hitting each other that night and you were just like God damn! Those two were throwing those kind of punches at each other, it was a great fight.”
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