Tag: Dana White’s Contender Series 65

DWCS 65 winner Rodolfo Bellato hopes for opportunity to avenge Vitor Petrino loss in the UFC

Rodolfo Bellato wants another shot at Vitor Petrino – the man that initially stopped his UFC dream.

LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Rodolfo Bellato[/autotag] wants another shot at [autotag]Vitor Petrino[/autotag] – the man that initially stopped his UFC dream.

In his second stint at Dana White’s Contender Series, Bellato (11-2) earned a UFC contract when he finished Murtaza Talha (6-1) by second-round TKO on Tuesday at DWCS 65.

Bellato fell short in his opportunity at a UFC contract last year, when Petrino knocked him out at DWCS 53. Now that he’s also a UFC fighter, Bellato hopes to run things back with Petrino (9-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) in the future.

“For sure,” Bellato told MMA Junkie and other reporters during the DWCS 65 post-fight press conference. “I told him (Petrino), ‘One day I will win you.’ So, yes, I want this fight. First, I need to stay in the UFC, I recover my face, and if Dana wants, I’m ready for the fight with Vitor Petrino.”

Since losing to Petrino, Bellato scored two wins in 2023 before getting a second shot at DWCS. Meanwhile, Petrino remained unbeaten after finishing Bellato, scoring two octagon wins over Anton Turkalj and Marcin Prachnio. He is currently booked against Modestas Bukauskas at UFC Fight Night 231 on Nov. 4.

According to Bellato, Petrino is up for a future rematch.

“He told me, ‘I want to fight with you in a big event of the UFC, and let’s do a show for everyone,'” Bellato said.

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for DWCS 65.

DWCS 65 winner Victor Hugo ready for top-ranked bantamweight for UFC debut

Victor Hugo wants to jump in the deep end of the bantamweight division after winning a UFC contract at DWCS 65.

LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Victor Hugo[/autotag] is not looking to waste any time after earning a UFC contract at Dana White’s Contender Series 65.

Hugo (24-4) submitted Eduardo Torres Caut (17-2) with a second-round kneebar on Tuesday at the UFC Apex, impressing company CEO to the point of offering him a deal with the organization.

After punching his ticket to the UFC, the Brazilian veteran wants to tackle the upper echelon of the stacked bantamweight division right off the bat.

“If it was for me, my next fight would be against a top 10, top five,” Hugo told MMA Junkie and other reportrs through an interpreter at the DWCS 65 post-fight press conference. “I don’t give a damn. I’m ready.”

Hugo’s confidence comes from his experience. The 30-year-old already has 28 professional fights under his belt, and his emotional reaction after his finish was a culmination of years of hard work. It’s been a long road, but now he finally has his opportunity on the big stage.

“I went through nine, 10, 11 – dude I even lost count of how many people I had to beat up to actually get here,” Hugo said. “So, if I needed to beat someone else up tonight to get this contract, I would have done that. That’s what I meant. I’ve gone through a bunch of people. If one more, I’ll do it.”

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for DWCS 65.

Mauricio Ruffy wants it known after DWCS 65 contract win: ‘I’m going to be a champion of the UFC’

Mauricio Ruffy vows to become a UFC champion after earning a contract at Dana White’s Contender Series 65.

LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Mauricio Ruffy[/autotag] vows to become a UFC champion after earning a promotional contract at Dana White’s Contender Series 65.

Ruffy (9-1) stopped Raimond Magomedaliev (10-2) by third-round TKO on Tuesday at the UFC Apex, keeping his 100 percent career finish rate intact.

Having competed at lightweight and welterweight throughout his career, Ruffy is open to both divisions in his pursuit of gold.

“I think any of the divisions, I can see myself in any of them,” Ruffy told MMA Junkie and other reporters through an interpreter at the DWCS 65 post-fight press conference. “I’m going to sit down, talk to my coaches, talk to my managers and see what’s going on. But I see myself in both of them.

“I just want to work, I came here to work. It’s such a long time to be able to be here, and that makes me want to work so much. File this to the UFC drawers and files, this guy said, ‘I want to be a champion of the UFC.’ I’m going to be a champion of the UFC. One day you’re going to look back, and I’ll say, ‘I told you so.'”

Despite the lackluster start to his fight with Magomedaliev, Ruffy was confident that his finish was contract-worthy, as he thinks the action picked up towards the end.

“I was very confident when the fight ended because it was an exciting fight,” Ruffy said. “I understand it was kind of lukewarm first round, then the second round things kind of got exciting, but I think people liked it. We were actually able to put on a show towards the end and I felt confident after it happened.”

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for DWCS 65.

DWCS 65 contract winner Jose Medina on not having a coach: ‘I actually train people to be my sparring partners’

Jose Medina training himself caught the eye of UFC CEO Dana White – which is why he was signed after a loss at DWCS 65.

LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Jose Medina[/autotag] training himself caught the eye of UFC CEO Dana White.

Despite losing a unanimous decision to Magomed Gadzhiyasulov (8-0) at Dana White’s Contender Series 65 on Tuesday, Jose Medina (11-3) was awarded a UFC contract for his valiant effort.

What stuck out in the 32-year-old Bolivian fighter’s story, is that for the past few years, he’s been coaching himself and reaching out to fighters to come train with him. Medina explains the process of his training camps.

“I’ve had MMA coaches in the past, but for the past three years, I’ve trained myself,” Medina told MMA Junkie and other reporters through an interpreter at the DWCS 65 post-fight press conference. “So, I go, do camp, come back, I do camp, come back. I actually train people to be my sparring partners.”

When Medina was pulled aside after his loss, he assumed it was for a hospital trip. Instead, he got the exciting news that he’ll be offered a UFC contract.

“Very, very grateful,” Medina said. “Raul from Entram actually told me, ‘If you put on a good fight, it doesn’t matter the result. He’s going to look at effort,’ and that’s what I did. I went up with everything and I put on a good effort, and there you go.”

Medina admits he expected more out of his undefeated opponent Gadzhiyasulov. He also expected more from himself.

“I don’t want to say anything about my opponent, but I really thought he was going to be tougher than I expected, especially in the wrestling,” Medina said. “There I was, I was actually able to defend the takedowns, keep standing up, and obviously I was able to keep up with him.

“I think I could have done better, there were things I could improve. For example, I maybe should have gone more for it, put some more volume. There’s a lot of stuff to actually improve, but I felt that I had a good fight.”

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for DWCS 65.

Dana White rips Showtime’s ‘horrible f*cking production’ of Canelo Alvarez vs. Jermell Charlo

UFC CEO Dana White remains heavily unimpressed with Showtime’s production of its boxing events.

LAS VEGAS – UFC CEO [autotag]Dana White[/autotag] remains heavily unimpressed with Showtime’s production of its boxing events.

This past Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, undisputed 168-pound champion [autotag]Canelo Alvarez[/autotag] (60-2-2, 39 KOs) dominated Jermell Charlo for a one-sided decision win.

Although White has a lot of respect for Alvarez, he didn’t hold back when bashing Showtime’s production of his fight, which he called “embarrassing,” as he continues a war of words with executive Stephen Espinoza.

“You know what I think of Showtime as a company: There’s no secret,” White told reporters, including MMA Junkie, at Tuesday’s DWCS 65 post-fight news conference. “Again, I could go on for days about their production on Saturday. They tried to do it better, I noticed. Showtime, I noticed you tried to do it better, but you guys suck.”

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White compared Showtime’s production to Tuesday’s Dana White’s Contender Series 65 event at the UFC Apex, lauding his team for their effective use of replay.

“Let me give you an example,” White said. “This is how good our production is. Did you see (Anthony) Pettis there tonight? So the kid (Gadzhiyasulov) that threw the Pettis kicks off the fence, there was three seconds left in the round, right? Three seconds left in the round. I picked up my big red phone and I called the truck, I said, ‘Put those Pettis kicks in the package.’ No problem. Hung up the phone, three seconds left in the round, they put them in there and they showed Pettis. Now, if any of you were home watching that fight that night on Showtime, they were trying to do more replays.

“Their replays were so bad, there was a set of replays where, in both replays, nobody landed a f*cking punch. So, then you’ve got the commentators trying to talk about what’s going on and they were terrible replays. When you know production – they’re a f*cking major network. They’re supposed to be anyway, Showtime, Viacom, whatever. That’s the product that you’re putting on when you know what you’re looking for and you know what you’re talking about in the production world? There’s nobody that can disagree with me that Showtime is a horrible, horrible f*cking production team.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for DWCS 65.

Dana White’s Contender’s Series 65: Grading the winners

MMA Junkie fight analyst Dan Tom takes a closer look at the performances of the four winners from Dana White’s Contender Series 65.

Week 9 of Dana White’s Contender Series (2023) took place on Tuesday in Las Vegas, and we’re grading the winners from the four-fight card, which streamed on ESPN+ from the UFC Apex.

With a simple but digestible format that has had the MMA fanbase responding, this series has shown to have legs in multiple ways while serving as a crockpot for contenders the UFC matchmakers can use to fill their roster for future events. With that trend in mind, I once again will be taking a look at the winning fighters, regardless of whether or not they won a UFC contract, and grading their performances in regard to their probability of returning to a UFC stage.

Dana White’s Contender Series 65 results: Four UFC contracts handed out – and impromptu fifth one

Check out the results from Dana White’s Contender Series 65 in Las Vegas, where eight fighters will compete for a UFC contract.

LAS VEGAS – MMA Junkie reported from Tuesday’s Dana White’s Contender Series 65 event at the UFC Apex.

Dana White’s Contender Series cards see prospects fighting for the opportunity to sign a UFC deal, with UFC CEO Dana White on hand to make the decisions.

The ninth episode of Season 7 saw eight fighters compete for their shot at a UFC contract. A light heavyweight bout between Rodolfo Bellato (11-2) and Murtaza Talha (6-1) served as the featured matchup of the four-bout lineup.

Bellato defeated Talha by second-round TKO stoppage in a near-10-minute brawl of a fight. In doing so, he earned a UFC contract from White.

Along with the light heavyweight Bellato, bantamweight Victor Hugo, light heavyweight Magomed Gadzhiyasulov, and welteweight Mauricio Ruffy receives UFC offers form White.

Additionally, Jose Medina, who lost to Gadzhiyasulov, received a contract for his effort and competitiveness.

Full results of Dana White’s Contender Series 64 include:

  • Rodolfo Bellato def. Murtaza Talha via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 4:46
  • Victor Hugo def. Eduardo Torres Caut via submission (kneebar) – Round 2, 2:16
  • Magomed Gadzhiyasulov def. Jose Medina via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
  • Mauricio Ruffy def. Raimond Magomedaliev via TKO (ground-and-pound) – Round 3, 4:45

Continue reading below for more details about each fight.

DWCS 65 video: Victor Hugo cranks on nasty kneebar for second-round submission win

Victor Hugo locked in a nasty leg submission at Dana White’s Contender Series 65, and made his plea for a UFC contract.

[autotag]Victor Hugo[/autotag] is no stranger to winning by submission, but his latest limb manipulation may be his ticket to the UFC.

In the second round of Dana White’s Contender Series 65 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Hugo (24-4) snatched up Eduardo Torres Caut’s right leg and immediately put the limb in danger. After securing the kneebar position, all Hugo needed to do was crank on it. When he did, the tap quickly came to prevent serious damage that could have soon followed.

Check out video of the finish below (via X):

“For all of you that don’t know, this is actually my specialty,” Hugo said through an interpreter during his post-fight interview. “I’ve had four finishes just like that. We’re going to fight like this. For everybody in the UFC, it’s going to be on the ground. I’m going to finish everybody down there.”

A moment later, Hugo made his plea for a UFC contract in English.

“I try a lot of times to get in the UFC,” Hugo said. “I went to TUF once, twice – I need that contract. Eleven years, so far away from my family. I deserve that.”

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