Tonight was the premiere of the 6th season of Dana White’s Contender Series and here’s how it went.
A bantamweight bout between Farid Basharat and Willian Souza was booked as the fifth fight on this card. However, Souza missed weight by 10lbs and the Nevada Athletic Commission cancelled the bout.
The first bout of the first week was a Flyweight bout between Alessandro Costa vs. Andres Luna Martinetti. It would go to the judges scorecards after 3 rounds where we saw Costa get comfortable before winning the 2nd and 3rd rounds to get the split decision win (30-27, 28-29, 29-28).
The second bout was a Featherweight bout between Dennis Buzukja vs. Kaleio Romero. Buzukja is no stranger to the Contender Series, he fought Melsik Baghdasaryan in a loss by unanimous decision in 2020. Now this time he was fighting Romero and after 3 rounds, it would go to the judges scorecards where Buzukja won by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
The third bout was a Light Heavyweight bout between Anton Turkalj vs. Acacio dos Santos. After 3 rounds and a couple of surprises in the fight, it would go to the judges scorecards where the winner was the undefeated Turkalj by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28).
The fourth and final fight of week one was a Middleweight bout between Ozzy Diaz vs. Joseph Pyfer. Diaz is the current LFA Middleweight champion and the last time Pyfer competed at the Contender Series. He would lose the fight unfortunately due to an elbow injury after being brutally slammed on the canvas. The fight would end in the 2nd round when Pyfer finished Diaz by KO (punches).
At the end of the night, the only contract earned from the 4 fights was in the main event by Pyfer who was the only fighter to win tonight by a finish. He will now be signing with the UFC after succeeding on his second chance in the Contender Series. It took him 18 years to get to the biggest promotion in MMA and it’ll be exciting to see what he does next.
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