Dana White's Contender Series
Week 4 Preview | Dana White's Contender Series Season 7
We're Back At The UFC Apex Tuesday. Here's A Look At The Latest Round Of UFC Hopefuls.
By E. Spencer Kyte, on Twitter @spencerkyte
Through the first three weeks of this season of Dana White’s Contender Series, 14 sets of fighters have ventured into the cage inside the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, and 13 of the victorious competitors have departed with a UFC contract in hand.
Last week marked the first episode of the season with just four fights and Josefine Knutsson’s unanimous decision win over Isis Verbeek was not enough to earn her a contract.
All of last year’s winners from Week 4 got the call to the UFC and have already crossed the threshold into the Octagon with mixed results, while in previous seasons, the fourth episode was the launch point for ascending talents like Brendan Allen and Michael Morales.
We’ll see if any of this week’s winners will be able to follow in their footsteps in the years to come, but first, here’s a look at the matchups slated to hit the cage this week on Dana White’s Contender Series.
Dylan Salvador vs Bolaji Oki
European lightweights close out Week 4 as France’s Dylan Salvador takes on Belgium’s Bolaji Oki.
A 30-year-old kickboxer with a win over UFC featherweight standout Giga Chikadze, Salvador has gone 5-1 since transitioning to MMA in early 2019, most recently earning a third-round submission win by Von Flue choke under the UAE Warriors banner last October. Sporting a 7-1 record and seven-fight winning streak, Oki earned a first-round win as a result of a knee to the liver in March, but has largely faced overmatched competition to date.
Will the more experienced and tested combat sports veteran Salvador have success on Tuesday or is Oki’s run of success a reflection of considerable talent and upside?
Chandler Cole vs Thomas Petersen
TUF alum Chandler Cole faces off with former LFA title contender Thomas Petersen in the second heavyweight fight of the season.
A member of Team Nunes on Season 30 of the long-running reality TV competition, Chandler’s tournament was marred by an elbow injury prior to his opening round bout with Jordan Heiderman, but he’s bounced back with a pair of stoppage wins since exiting the TUF house. Peterson faced off with DWCS grad Waldo Cortes Acosta for the vacant LFA heavyweight title three fights back, with the loss standing as the only blemish on his record over the course of eight professional appearances.
Neither man has ever gone the distance in their respective careers and very seldom have their fights made out of the opening round, so expect fists to fly early and often until someone is left looking up at the lights.
Mateo Vogel vs Timmy Cuamba
Featherweights with solid records meet in the middle of Tuesday’s card as Mateo Vogel faces off with Timmy Cuamba.
Like Caio Machado in Week 1, Vogel is a Battlefield Fight League champion, touching down in Las Vegas with an 8-2 record that includes wins over fellow BFL standout Serhiy Sidey (more on him next week) and UFC bantamweight Garrett Armfield, and his two losses coming against Da’Mon Blackshear (who seems to be everywhere these days) and Xavier Alaoui. Training under Dewey Cooper in Las Vegas, Cuamba makes the short trip to the APEX looking to extend his winning streak to three following the most successful year of his young career in 2022.
Can Vogel give Battlefield another UFC grad or will “Twilight Timmy” steal the show?
Marco Tulio vs Yousri Belgaroui
Marco Tulio looks to join his Chute Boxe Diego Lima teammates on the UFC roster, while Yousri Belgaroui aims to join former kickboxing rivals Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira as the latest to successfully transition into the Octagon.
The 28-year-old Silva has won five straight and nine of 10 overall, with at least five of those victories coming by way of stoppage, including a second-round finish of former TUF Brazil winner Glaico Franca. Belgaroui is 5-2 as a mixed martial artist, but competed at the highest levels in kickboxing, sharing the ring with both Pereira and Adesanya on multiple occasions, as well as beating Jason Wilnis.
Silva was initially scheduled to face Val Woodburn before he was called up to face Bo Nickal last month at UFC 290, so it’ll be interesting to see how he navigates the change to the more polished, but less experienced, Belgaroui here.
Carlos Prates vs Mitch Ramirez
This week’s action begins in the welterweight division, as experienced Brazilian Carlos Prates takes on unbeaten American Mitch Ramirez.
Prates carries a 16-6 record and six-fight winning streak into battle this week in Las Vegas, having earned each of his last two victories by first-round stoppage under the LFA banner. A perfect 7-0 as a professional, the 30-year-old Ramirez has bounced around and fought in various promotions, earning wins in LFA, Tuff-N-Uff and, most recently, XMMA, where he finished Jeremie Holloway with leg kicks in the third round in May.
Someone’s run of success will come to an end inside the APEX, while someone else could potentially fulfill their dream of getting to compete on the biggest stage in the sport after Tuesday night.
It’s been an entertaining season thus far and there is no reason to believe that is going to change when the action returns to the UFC APEX this week.
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Contender Series 2023 - Week 3 - Aronov vs. Reese --- Contender Series 2023 - Week 5 - Lopes vs. Ribeiro 
