On July 26th, season 6 of Dana White’s Contender Series kicked off. However, a show usually guaranteed to entertain didn’t bring much fire. When the time came to hand out the contracts, President Dana White didn’t hold back delivering a message to all fighters who plan on being on his show.
WEEK 1– Four fights happened in week 1, the first three were as boring as you could ask for. Then entered Joseph Pyfer. Pyfer entered the octagon with a record of 8-2 facing off against 7-1, Ozzy Diaz. Round One was back and forth with both men having a case for winning the round. A minute into round two, both men were throwing big strikes when Pyfer finally landed this KO blow.
WEEK 2– After arguably the worst week in DWCS history, Week two did quite the opposite producing the best week in the history of the show. Before the show began, White went into each fighter’s locker room to give them a pep talk and to reiterate his message given last week. Dana’s message musta been loud and clear. 5 fights on the card.. 5 contracts given out. Everyone knew the fighters were going to be hungry this week, but even with Dana’s best wishes he couldn’t of expected five fights this good.
Fight #1- Billy Goff(-225) Vs Shimon Smotritsky(+170)
Starting off week two we had a battle between two welterweights. Both fighters heard Dana’s message loud and clear, and came out headhunting. Smotritsky looked like he might secure an early knockout after knocking down Billy Goff. Goff recovered, and a tired Smotritsky couldn’t handle the blows which resulted in Billy securing the comeback victory in Round 1. It just goes to show, you can’t beat (G)off.Fight #2- Waldo Cortes-Acosta(-420) Vs Danilo Suzart(+300)
After a great first fight, the biggest favorite of the night stepped into the octagon to take on Suzart. The pressure didn’t seem to be there for Waldo Cortes-Acosta. Early on you could tell Suzart was no match for Waldo. Cortes-Acosta earned his contract with a TKO victory 4 minutes into the fight after Herb Dean jumped in to stop the onslaught.
Fight #3- Francis Marshall(-125) Vs Connor Matthews(Even)
When Dana White says post-fight says” The Francis Marshall fight was a high-level fight and could be on any UFC PPV Prelim” you know the fight was nothing short of spectacular. Even though Marshall won by decision there was no doubt that he was going to get a UFC contract. Both guys came out swinging and it didn’t stop the entire 15 minutes. Marshall landed 146 strikes with 110 of them being significant strikes, leaving Connor Matthews bloody but somehow still standing. Look for Dana to get Francis Marshall into a prelim slot as soon as Marshall is ready.
Fight #4- Shannon Ross(-275) Vs Vinicius Salvador(+200)
Fight of the night EASILY. Dana White went into the ring to congratulate both fighters, seriously that’s how good it was. Both fighters went in knowing one of them would be sleeping at the end of it. Salvador knocked down Ross twice in the first round. Each time Ross was able to regain composure and still return punches on Salvador. After 9 minutes of straight-up scraping, Salvador was finally able to knock down Ross a third time which would also be the last. Salvador became the first underdog of the night to cash, also while earning a contract into the UFC.
Fight #5- Charlie Campbell(-170) Vs Chris Duncan(+130)
After 4 spectacular fights that had Dana White jumping out of his seat, we finally arrived at the main event. I’ve watched the clip at least 20 times and I’m still mind-blown how Duncan pulled off this comeback. It’s hard to even call it a comeback because the fight didn’t even last two minutes. It left me actually speechless. Charlie Campbell looked like he had Chris Duncan knocked out until Campbell was the one knocked out. I’ll let the clip speak for itself.Next, let’s take a look at the live reactions of the commentating booth.. along with the reaction of the Campbell family who were obviously as shocked as everyone else.
After last week’s message, you knew the fighters were going to have extra motivation this week. No one expected the results that happened this week. Will any of the winners tonight be a future champion? Probably not, but they finally took the first step needed. If you are unfamiliar with DWCS, but love MMA or sports gambling I would highly recommend tuning in every Tuesday at 7 PM. (ESPN+)
Some people call me MarTy and some people call me Ryan. Wildcard when it comes to my writing. #FadeMe if I ever tweet out “locks”.