Tag: Felipe Dos Santos

Manel Kape gets scratched Dana White’s Contender Series fighter as UFC 293 replacement

A UFC 293 flyweight bout between ranked flyweights will instead feature one ranked fight vs. a promotional newcomer.

How’s this for a downgrade? Or upgrade depending on the perspective.

After Kai Kara-France declared himself out of his UFC 293 bout against [autotag]Manel Kape[/autotag] on Monday, [autotag]Felipe dos Santos[/autotag] has been tabbed to replace him at the Sept. 9 pay-per-view event from Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.

Two people with knowledge of the situation confirmed the booking to MMA Junkie after an initial report from MMA Fighting. The people requested anonymity since the UFC hasn’t made an official announcement.

The new matchup means Kape, who’s No. 10 in the official UFC flyweight rankings, goes from meeting a fighter ranked ahead of him (Kara-France is No. 5) to welcoming a promotional newcomer. Dos Santos was slated to compete Tuesday at Dana White’s Contender Series 59, but his opponent, Luciano Pereira, didn’t weigh in because of medical issues. Now dos Santos, 22, gets a golden opportunity to make an immediate splash jumping into the biggest fight of his life on less than three weeks’ notice.

Dos Santos is 7-0 in his professional career, most recently winning a unanimous decision vs. Hugo Paiva under the LFA banner last November.

Kape (18-6 MMA, 3-2 UFC) is riding three straight wins after a rocky 0-2 start to his UFC tenure. After joining the UFC in February 2021, he dropped fights against Alexandre Pantoja and Matheus Nicolau. Since then, he’s beaten Ode Osbourne, Zhalgas Zhumagulov, and David Dvorak.

With the change, here is the updated UFC 293 lineup:

MAIN CARD (ESPN+ pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)

  • Israel Adesanya vs. Sean Strickland
  • Tai Tuivasa vs. Alexander Volkov
  • Felipe dos Santos vs. Manel Kape
  • Austen Lane vs. Justin Tafa
  • Tyson Pedro vs. Anton Turkalj

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPNNews, ESPN+, 8 p.m. ET)

  • Da Woon Jung vs. Carlos Ulberg
  • Jack Jenkins vs. Chepe Mariscal
  • John Makdessi vs. Jamie Mullarkey

PRELIMINARY CARD, (ESPNNews, ESPN+, 6:30 p.m. ET)

  • Blood Diamond vs. Charlie Radtke
  • Gabriel Miranda vs. Shane Young
  • Viviane Araujo vs. Casey O’Neill

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 293.

Dana White’s Contender Series, Season 7 roster filling up for summer 2023 launch

Dana White’s Contender Series will return this summer. Check out the fighters and fights that have been booked thus far.

Dana White’s Contender Series, Season 7 is in the works.

DWCS debuted in 2017 with an eight-episode inaugural season. Season 2 was held in 2018 with eight episodes, followed by a three-episode DWCS: Brasil. In 2019, DWCS was extended to 10 episodes for its third season. The length was repeated in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Each season, the number of fighters signed has increased. Thus far, the show has produced UFC notables including Sean O’Malley, Maycee Barber, Geoff Neal, Ryan Spann, Sodiq Yusuff, Jamahal Hill, Taila Santos, Johnny Walker, Alex Perez, Bo Nickal, Jailton Almeida, Jack Della Maddalena, and Marina Rodriguez among others.

In recent weeks, the UFC matchmakers have been gearing up for a summer DWCS return, expected to launch Aug. 8. Athletes and matchups have slowly but surely been booked. The number of episodes for Season 7 is not yet known.

Scroll below to see the latest athletes and fights booked, which have been confirmed by MMA Junkie or posted about by the fighters involved. This list will be updated as more fighters and matchups come to light.