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With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best knockouts from October 2023.
With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best knockouts from October 2023: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Knockout of the Month award for October.
At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting for your choice.
Marquel Mederos wants a fellow Dana White’s Contender Series alum in his UFC debut.
LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Marquel Mederos[/autotag] wants a fellow Dana White’s Contender Series graduate in his UFC debut.
Mederos (8-1) extended his winning streak to six when he knocked out Issa Isakov (10-3) to earn a UFC contract Tuesday at Dana White’s Contender Series 66.
Mederos would love to share the UFC 296 card with Factory X teammate Brandon Royval, who challenges flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja in the co-main event. Mederos thinks DWCS 62 contract winner [autotag]James Llontop[/autotag](14-2) would be a good fight.
“I do want to fight on that same card as Brandon (Royval), that Dec. 16 card, that’s a big card for us,” Mederos told MMA Junkie and other reporters during the DWCS 66 post-fight press conference. “If I can get one of the Contender guys like James Llontop, I’d love to fight him on that card. That would be perfect.”
Mederos was happy to prove any doubters wrong about his takedown defense, where he showed great balance to stay on his feet against Isakov.
“It’s cute to me and it’s amusing when people say that I can’t wrestle,” Mederos said. “Because that’s all I heard from media all camp, ‘This guy can’t wrestle, this guy can’t wrestle.’ If that was the case, he would held had me down and held me down for that whole round, but to answer your question, yes that was the game plan for this camp. Defend the takedowns, knock his ass out.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for DWCS 66.
Lucas Rocha had to battle some early adversity before finishing Davi Bittencourt at Dana White’s Contender Series 66.
LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Lucas Rocha[/autotag] had to battle some early adversity before finishing [autotag]Davi Bittencourt[/autotag] at Dana White’s Contender Series 66.
Rocha (17-1) came from behind to score a highlight reel knockout of Bittencourt (14-4) in their bantamweight bout Tuesday to earn a UFC contract. Before landing the brutal knee knockout, Rocha had his back taken in Round 1 and was battling to fend off Bittencourt’s rear-naked choke attempts.
But Rocha remained calm.
“I trained this over and over, same scenario with my coaches … so I wasn’t really surprised,” Rocha told MMA Junkie and other reporters through an interpreter during the DWCS 66 post-fight news conference. “I just had to weather the storm, and I knew my time would come.”
There was some heat between Rocha and Bittencourt heading into the fight due to Rocha missing weight in their first scheduled bout last week, which was scrapped. Rocha explained what went wrong.
“The week I didn’t make the weight was the worst travel week I’ve had,” Rocha said. “We had 18 hours, then we got stuck in the plane, there was a storm, I couldn’t eat what I needed to eat, I couldn’t drink water, I couldn’t rest. It was literally a nightmare. I just had to make adjustments to actually be able to fight this week
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for DWCS 66.
Andre Lima and Rickson Zenidim will fight for a UFC deal on Dana White’s Contender Series this fall.
Two of Brazil’s top flyweights will fight for the possibility to earn a UFC contract this fall.
[autotag]Andre Lima[/autotag] and [autotag]Rickson Zenidim[/autotag] will collide in front of the UFC brass Oct. 10 at the final Dana White’s Contender Series event of Season 7. The card takes place at the UFC Apex.
Two people with knowledge of the booking recently informed MMA Junkie of the matchup but asked to remain anonymous as the promotion has yet to make an official announcement.
Lima (6-0) rides high off a win in his LFA debut in July during which he finished Igor Taylon with elbows. The finish was his fifth knockout/TKO in six professional fights. He trains out of Tim Mineiro in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Zenidim (14-1) gets booked for the season time on Season 7 after visa issues forced him out of an Aug. 8 bout vs. Kevin Borjas. With travel papers in hand, Zenidim is only 24 but already has 15 professional MMA bouts under his belt. Though he has two career TKOs, a whopping 12 of his wins have been submissions.
With the addition, the DWCS 66 lineup includes:
Check out the full Dana White’s Contender Series, Season 7 lineup here.
