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 five episodes of season eight, 20 prospects moved a step closer to their title dreams on MMA’s biggest stage.
And the sixth added another four talents to the UFC roster. That included heavyweight Tallison Teixeira, who delivered the highlight of the night in the penultimate bout when he knocked out Arthur Lopes to secure his path to the Octagon.
Earlier on, two finishes opened the card, with lightweight Ahmad Hassanzada locking in a rear-naked choke to render Dylan Mantello unconscious and middleweight Ateba Gautier stopping Yura Naito with punches.
The three who found finishes all exited the Apex with UFC deals, as did bantamweight Elijah Smith, son of UFC veteran Gilbert Smith. He got the better of New Zealand’s Aaron Tau by way of unanimous decision in an entertaining main event.
The contest between Benjamin Bennett and Joey Hart was the only matchup not to produce a new contract this week, with the former’s split decision victory not enough to persuade White to bring him aboard the UFC.
With that in mind, see below for the moments that did land four athletes contracts with the UFC.
