Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Marquel Mederos won his UFC debut after punching his ticket on DWCS. After UFC Fight Night 235, he’d like a fight in an arena.
LAS VEGAS – [autotag]Marquel Mederos[/autotag] beat Landon Quinones with a unanimous decision Saturday on the preliminary card at UFC Fight Night 235 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Take a look inside the fight with Mederos, who won his official UFC debut after punching his ticket through Dana White’s Contender Series.
UFC Fight Night 235 fighters took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay, a program that continued after the UFC’s deal with Venum.
LAS VEGAS – Fighters from Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 235 event took home UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance pay totaling $170,500.
The program, a comprehensive plan that includes outfitting requirements, media obligations and other items under the fighter code of conduct, replaces the previous payments made under the UFC Athlete Outfitting Policy.
UFC Fight Night 235 took place at the UFC Apex. The entire card streamed on ESPN+.
The full UFC Fight Night 235 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts included:
* * * *
[autotag]Nassourdine Imavov[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Roman Dolidze[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Renato Moicano[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Drew Dober[/autotag]: $21,000
[autotag]Randy Brown[/autotag]: $16,000
def. [autotag]Muslim Salikhov[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Natalia Silva[/autotag]: $4,500
def. [autotag]Viviane Araujo[/autotag]: $11,000
[autotag]Aliaskhab Khizriev[/autotag]: $4,000
vs. [autotag]Makhmud Muradov[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Charlie Radtke[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Gilbert Urbina[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Molly McCann[/autotag]: $11,000
def. [autotag]Diana Belbita[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Charles Johnson[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Azat Maksum[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Themba Gorimbo[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Pete Rodriguez[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Jeong Yeong Lee[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Blake Bilder[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Luana Carolina[/autotag]: $6,000
def. [autotag]Julija Stoliarenko[/autotag]: $6,000
[autotag]Marquel Mederos[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Landon Quinones[/autotag]: $4,000
[autotag]Jamal Pogues[/autotag]: $4,000
def. [autotag]Thomas Petersen[/autotag]: $4,000
Under the UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance program’s payout tiers, which appropriate the money generated by Venum’s multi-year sponsorship with the UFC, fighters are paid based on their total number of UFC bouts, as well as Zuffa-era WEC fights (January 2007 and later) and Zuffa-era Strikeforce bouts (April 2351 and later). Fighters with 1-3 bouts receive $4,000 per appearance; 4-5 bouts get $4,500; 6-10 bouts get $6,000; 11-15 bouts earn $11,000; 16-20 bouts pocket $16,000; and 21 bouts and more get $21,000. Additionally, champions earn $42,000 while title challengers get $32,000.
In addition to experience-based pay, UFC fighters will receive in perpetuity royalty payments amounting to 20-30 percent of any UFC merchandise sold that bears their likeness, according to officials.
Full 2024 UFC Promotional Guidelines Compliance payouts:
Year-to-date total: $615,500
2023 total: $8,188,000
2022 total: $8,351,500
2021 total: $6,167,500
Program-to-date total: $23,322,500
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 235.
Check out what the UFC Fight Night 235 winners and guest fighters had to say backstage at Saturday’s event.
LAS VEGAS – UFC Fight Night 235 took place Saturday with 13 bouts on the lineup. We’ve got you covered with backstage winner interviews from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
You can hear from all the UFC Fight Night 235 winners by checking out their post-fight news conferences below.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 235.
All the UFC fight announcements that were first reported or confirmed by MMA Junkie in the past week.
MMA fight announcements are hard to follow. With so many outlets and channels available, it’s nearly impossible to organize.
But here at MMA Junkie, we’ve got your back.
Each week, we’ll compile all the newly surfaced fights in one spot. Every Monday, expect a feature listing everything you might have missed from the UFC.
Here are the fight announcements that were broken or confirmed by MMA Junkie or officially announced by the promotions from Nov. 27-Dec. 3.
Find out who joined the UFC in October and learn more about them here.
The UFC roster is bigger than ever – and it continues to expand.
Fresh faces appear on nearly every card, whether onboarded as short-notice opening fillers, “Dana White’s Contender Series” signees, or rare straight-up additions. Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of the hustle and bustle of the mixed martial arts news beat, but here at MMA Junkie, we’ve got you covered.
“Fresh Ink” is your list of fighters added to the UFC roster the previous month and provides background on who they are and where they came from.
Check out the October 2023 list below.
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.
Season 7, Week 10 of Dana White’s Contender Series goes down Tuesday, and MMA Junkie will have live results from on-site at the UFC Apex.
LAS VEGAS – MMA Junkie reported from Tuesday’s Dana White’s Contender Series 66 event.
Dana White’s Contender Series cards see prospects fighting for the opportunity to sign a UFC deal, with promotion CEO Dana White on hand to make the decisions at the UFC Apex. Tuesday’s episode was the 10th and final of the show’s seventh season.
White was once again in a generous mood as he eclipsed the previous record of 43 as he offered contract Nos. 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, and 46 on the season. Five of the six winners received UFC deals: bantamweight Lucas Rocha, lightweight [autotag]Marquel Mederos[/autotag], featherweight [autotag]Connor Matthews[/autotag], flyweight [autotag]Andre Lima[/autotag], and bantamweight [autotag]Ramon Taveras[/autotag] this week.
The lone fighter who did not receive a contract was middleweight [autotag]Torrez Finney[/autotag], a physical specimen who finished [autotag]Yuri Panferov[/autotag] by second-round rear-naked choke.
White said Finney needed more time to develop and that he’d be doing the fighter a disservice by bringing him into the UFC now.
Additionally, White announced Taveras’ UFC debut – a rare move due to rare circumstances. Taveras will rematch [autotag]Serhiy Sidey[/autotag], a fighter he lost to in controversial fashion due to a premature stoppage earlier in the season.
Full results of Dana White’s Contender Series 66 include:
Continue reading below for more details about each fight.
Knee knockouts were trending early in the season finale of Dana White’s Contender Series at the UFC Apex.
Knockouts by knee are the trending result at the season finale of Dana White’s Contender Series.
In the second bout of Dana White’s Contender Series 66 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, [autotag]Marquel Mederos[/autotag] (8-1) became the second fighter in as many bouts to finish a fight with a knee knockout.
In the first round against Issa Isakov (10-3), Mederos pressed forward and timed a crushing knee to the jaw. Isakov was immediately stiffened and timbered to the canvas at 4:09.
Check out video of the finish below (via X):
A big knee connection from Mederos 😤 #DWCS pic.twitter.com/3vpPfle8r4
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) October 11, 2023
Mederos, a Factory X product with only one career loss, extended his current winning streak to six, which equals his total number of finishes in nine pro bouts.
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Up-to-the-minute results of DWCS 66 include:
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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.
