{"id":62663,"date":"2025-08-12T13:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T13:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/62663\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T13:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T13:48:08","slug":"dana-whites-contender-series-season-9-matchups-and-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/62663\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Dana White’s Contender Series’: Season 9 matchups and results"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

ESPN staffAug 12, 2025, 01:03 PM<\/p>\n

\"Copy<\/a>Email<\/a>Print<\/a>Open Extended Reactions<\/p>\n

The UFC’s best pipeline for talent is back, as “Dana White’s Contender Series” returns for Season 9 on Aug. 12. The show, which has ushered in many of the fighters on the promotion’s roster today, was also the path for some of the top fighters and prospects in the game.<\/p>\n

DWCS was an introduction to former champions such as light heavyweight Jamahal Hill<\/a> and men’s bantamweight Sean O’Malley<\/a> for many fight fans. It’s also how newly crowned welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena<\/a> cracked the UFC roster. Who will be the next big star to get their big break?<\/p>\n

Here are the matchups, results and fighters who earned a UFC contract from each week.<\/p>\n

How to watch the fights<\/p>\n

Watch “Dana White’s Contender Series” on ESPN+: Get ESPN+ here.<\/a><\/p>\n

There’s also FightCenter<\/a>, which offers stats and analysis for every UFC and DWCS card.<\/p>\n

“Dana White’s Contender Series” Season 9 matchups and results:Week 1 matchups:<\/p>\n

Middleweight: Ilian Bouafia<\/a> vs. Neemias Santana<\/a>
Welterweight: Ty Miller<\/a> vs. Jimmy Drago<\/a>
Middleweight: Damian Pinas<\/a> vs. Murtaza Talha<\/a>
Featherweight: George Mangos<\/a> vs. Radley da Silva<\/a>
Middleweight: Christopher Ewert<\/a> vs. Yuri Panferov<\/a><\/p>\n

Week 2 matchups:<\/p>\n

Featherweight: Manuel Exposito<\/a> vs. Jose Delano<\/a>
Middleweight: Jon Kunnenman<\/a> vs. Cam Rowston<\/a>
Men’s bantamweight: Kaushik Saikumar<\/a> vs. Louis Lee Scott<\/a>
Heavyweight: Josh Hokit<\/a> vs. Guilherme Uriel<\/a>
Featherweight: Tommy Cuozzi<\/a> vs. Ramiro Jimenez<\/a><\/p>\n

Week 3 matchups:<\/p>\n

Light heavyweight: Vitor Costa<\/a> vs. Ryan Gandra<\/a>
Featherweight: Damon Wilson<\/a> vs. Marico Barbosa<\/a>
Light heavyweight: Abdul-Rakhman Yakhyaev<\/a> vs. Alik Lorenz<\/a>
Lightweight: Cristian Perez<\/a> vs. Manoel Sousa<\/a>
Heavyweight: Elisha Ellison<\/a> vs. Brando Peri\u010di\u0107<\/a><\/p>\n

Week 4 matchups:<\/p>\n

Welterweight: Jack Congdon<\/a> vs. Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani<\/a>
Middleweight: Theo Haig<\/a> vs. Cezary Oleksiejczuk<\/a>
Lightweight: Mandel Nallo<\/a> vs. Samuel Silva<\/a>
Men’s flyweight: An Tuan Ho<\/a> vs. Frank Silva<\/a>
Featherweight: Tommy McMillen<\/a> vs. David Mgoyan<\/a><\/p>\n

Week 5 matchups:<\/p>\n

TBA<\/p>\n

Week 6 matchups:<\/p>\n

TBA<\/p>\n

Week 7 matchups:<\/p>\n

TBA<\/p>\n

Week 8 matchups:<\/p>\n

TBA<\/p>\n

Week 9 matchups:<\/p>\n

TBA<\/p>\n

Week 10 matchups:<\/p>\n

TBA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN staffAug 12, 2025, 01:03 PM EmailPrintOpen Extended Reactions The UFC’s best pipeline for talent is back, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-62663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}