Can DW’s contenders produce great prospects and future champions?

[Only Here for Attachments]

moar liek cantender series LOL

 

[You Will Vote For Dreyga]

Seems to me like most of these contender series “prospects” are stand and bang bar room brawlers, not young phenoms, blue chip prospects, or future world champions. What do you think?

Let’s pause and be rational for a moment and consider the sheer number of contracts awarded on the Contender Series. They give like 30/40 something contenders series contracts on the show EVERY SINGLE YEAR. Many of the fighters that lose on contenders series end up getting signed anyway as last minute replacements. At this point Contender Series is their number one recruiting tool. There is going to be a point where a very large percentage of ALL UFC fighters will be contenders series alumni.


IT IS AN INEVITABLY THAT THERE WILL BE MANY CONTENDERS SERIES ALUMNI THAT BECOME CHAMPIONS.

 

[Ares Black]

moar liek cantender series LOL

0/10

 

[Bubba32]

so far theyve all been duds

 

[Kryptt]

I like the talent outta LFaF, TuF and DWCS - I mean it's a similar/same pool with a slightly different promotion / recruitment.

Odds are it will happen.

 

[CorninginChristianburg]

The purpose is to fill cards and not to produce contender, the best prospects are signed immediately, but it will probably happen at some point. Some prospects these days are going on contender series who probably deserve to be signed directly, like Aliaskhab Khizriev comes to mind.

If you point is that it has an atrocious record, you are not wrong...

 

[Ares Black]

so far theyve all been duds

Adrian Yanez
Miguel Baeza
Marina Rodriguez
Rogerio Bontorin
Raulian Paiva
Sean O'Malley
Geoff Neal
Julian Marquez
Sodiq Yusuff
Jimmy Crute
Brendan Allen
Tracy Cortez
Jamahal Hill
Kennedy Nzechukwu
Billy Quarantillo

 

[Greg House]

I mean it's not like they are "producing" shit. They pair 2 prospects close enough to be UFC level and give the winner a contract if he wins in a dominant way.

5 fights per event, 10 events a year, 5 years now. Yeah, sure, one of these prospects will evolve into a champion like TUF fighters have done it in the past. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

But is not as if they "are prodicing shit" here, they are just handpicking prospects that in most cases they would be signing anyways. And they are not too "picky" about it because they need people to fill cards.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

Yes, but the fact that Dana favors action over skill doesn't help at all.

$$$$ favors action over skill

 

[Substance Abuse]

Adrian Yanez
Miguel Baeza
Marina Rodriguez
Rogerio Bontorin
Raulian Paiva
Sean O'Malley
Geoff Neal
Julian Marquez
Sodiq Yusuff
Jimmy Crute
Brendan Allen
Tracy Cortez
Jamahal Hill
Kennedy Nzechukwu
Billy Quarantillo

Good list. I came in here to specifically mention Sean, Allen and Yanez. Some good prospects who would be much higher up in other organizations have come from DWCS.

 

[Fesaine]

Yeah, there's a few potential world champions on the line up this year imo.

Who's your first choice? I would go with Khusein Askhabov

 

[Smegma-Head]

It‘s for the generation Z(nowflakes) and the LGBTQ community. Or is somebody else rooting for that O‘Malley douche?

 

[BlessYourHeart]

The LHW rankings right now have 4 guys from DWCS: (Hill, Crute, Spann, Walker.)

The LHW isn't what it used to be either

 

[EndlessCritic]

The LHW isn't what it used to be either

Well yeah, UFC let half of the best fighters in the world go to Bellator.

 

[Captain Sausage]

I think so, every champ had their UFC debut somewhere...like many have already said, mathematically it seems inevitable there will be a break-out star at some point.

 

[Ares Black]

It‘s for the generation Z(nowflakes) and the LGBTQ community. Or is somebody else rooting for that O‘Malley douche?

Lol. What a shitty hot take.

 

[BEATDOWNS]

First two seasons produced some great talent but after that they are spreading themselves really thin. imho

 

[BjPenn2017]

I’d think so at some point, but who knows. They bring in some absolute cans like JP Buys and a lot of the guys are just kind of meh.

If a champion does materialize, it will definitely be in one of the less stacked divisions like women’s or 125/LHW HW. Don’t expect to see a WW, LW, FW or BW champion off that show any time soon.

 

[mjfan23]

No.

 

[Franklin U.]

Finally, people starting to get it.

Thsnk God for new fans and ESPN. Their cash cow are their ppvs( which at one point WAS NOT their downstream goal)... which they try to make attractive as possible. They have to spread out a great deal of talent over their ESPN deal and ppvs.
Dana hoping and praying for talent but will settle with an ultra personality with some talent but a ceiling. You need $$$ to bring in people to build the talent ( the depth of) that they once had.

People shit on Dana and I get it but hes trying and doing everything to make this thing sustainable. The biggest thing I see now is this Russian / khabib/ Javier thing....these guys seem to be the real deal. He has a couple of them, at least.