DWCS Dana's Contender Series 2025 thread

[Koala]

Summer is approaching which means DWCS season 9 will also be approaching.


*Updated: 07/08/25


Confirmed Fights:


Heavyweight
Josh Hokit - 27 / 5-0 vs. Guilherme Uriel - 28 / 6-1 (Week 2)
Elisha Ellison - 28 / 5-1 vs. Brando Peričić - 30 / 4-1 (Week 3)
Guilherme Pat - 5-0 vs. Anthony Guarascio - 31 / 4-0 (Week 5)


Light Heavyweight
Abdulrakhman Yakhyaev - 24 / 6-0 vs. Alik Lorenz - 28 / 6-1 (Week 3)
Ivan Gnizditskiy - 29 / 5-0 vs. Felipe Franco - 24 / 8-0 (Week 5)
Jair de Oliveira - 29 / 6-0 vs. Rafael Tobias - 22 / 13-1 (Week 7)
Mahamed Aly - 31 / 4-0 vs. Iwo Baraniewski - 26 / 5-0 (Week TBA)


Middleweight
Christopher Ewert - 31 / 7-0 vs. Yuri Panferov - 28 / 8-1 (Week 1)
Cam Rowston - 30 / 11-3 vs. Brandon Holmes - 28 / 5-0 (Week 2)
Ryan Gandra - 30 / 7-1 vs. Vitor Costa - 24 / 8-1 (Week 3)
In Soo Hwang - 31 / 8-1 vs. Paddy McCorry - 27 / 6-1 (Week 6)
Baysangur Susurkaev - 24 / 8-0 vs. Murtaza Talha - 29 / 7-1 (Week 1)
Ilian Bouafia - 29 / 6-0 vs. Neemias Santana - 27 / 7-2-1 (Week 1)
Cezary Oleksiejczuk - 25 / 15-3 vs. Theo Haig - 28 / 6-0 (Week 4)
Luis Felipe Dias - 30 / 15-5 vs. Jonathan Figueroa - 30 / 12-1 (Week 8)
Juan Andres Cabrera - 21 / 9-1 vs. Jimmie Pace Jr. - 29 / 7-2 (Week 9)


Welterweight
Jimmy Drago - 30 / 7-2 vs. Ty Miller - 24 / 5-0 (Week 1)
Jack Congdon - 30 / 9-2 vs. Jean-Paul Lebosnoyani - 26 / 8-2 (Week 4)



Lightweight
Samuel Sanches - 22 / 10-1 vs. Chasen Blair - 26 / 7-3 (Week 5)
Mandel Nallo - 32 / 13-3 vs. Samuel Silva - 29 / 13-4-1 (Week 4)
Cristian Pérez - 25 / 13-1 vs. Manoel Sousa - 27 / 12-1 (Week 3)


Featherweight
Márcio Barbosa - 26 / 16-2 vs. Damon Wilson - 31 / 9-2 (Week 3)
Radley Da Silva - 29 / 7-1 vs. George Mangos - 21 / 7-0 (Week 1)
José Delano - 28 / 15-3 vs. Manuel Exposito - 24 / 13-2 (Week 2)
Tommy Cuozzi - 25 / 8-0 vs. Ramiro Jimenez - 26 / 10-0 (Week 2)
Tommy McMillen - 27 / 8-0 vs. David Mgoyan - 21 / 7-0 (Week 4)
Cam Teague - 27 / 9-1 vs. Lerryan Douglas - 30 / 12-5 (Week 5)
Javier Reyes - 31 / 21-5 vs. Icaro Brito - 26 / 8-1 (Week 7)
Demba Seck - 30 / 10-2 vs. Kurtis Campbell - 23 / 7-0 (Week TBA)

Bantamweight
Kaushik Saikumar - 27 / 5-0 vs. Louis Lee Scott - 25 / 9-0 (Week 2)
Hecher Sosa - 29 / 13-1 vs. Mackson Lee - 26 / 9-0 (Week 6)
Raphael Uchegbu - 10-1 vs. Cody Chovancek - 26 / 8-0 (Week TBA)


Women's Flyweight
Shanelle Dyer - 24 / 6-0 vs. Carol Foro - 8-1 (Week 5)
Jeisla Chaves - 28 / 5-0 vs. Sofia Montenegro - 26 / 6-1 (Week 7)


Flyweight
Frank Silva - 20 / 7-0-1 vs. An Tuan Ho - 24 / 7-1 (Week 4)



Confirmed Fighters:


Heavyweight

Rafael Pergentino - 5-0


Light Heavyweight

Luke Fernandez - 30 / 5-0


Middleweight

Đani Barbir - 7-0
Mantas Kondratavičius - 7-1
Mario Mingaj - 7-0


Welterweight

Yoon Sung Jang - 22 / 7-1
Thomas Gantt - 32 / 10-0
Michael Oliveira - 27 / 8-0


Featherweight

Ananias Mulumba - 26 / 9-2


Bantamweight

Juan Díaz - 27 / 14-1-1
Adrian Luna Martinetti - 29 / 16-0


Flyweight

Paulo da Silva - 23 / 11-1
Rashid Vagabov - 27 / 12-2
Roque Conceição Junior - 25 / 10-2


Fighters Out

Will Currie
Cody Law
Regina Tarin
Damian Pinas
Jon Kunneman
Nikola Joksović

Flyweight: Frank Silva out, Eduardo Chapolin In for Week 4 vs An Tuan Ho (the guy fought Kavanagh last year, and he's facing Chapolin this year, good luck)
Thomas Gantt is fighting Adam Livingston at LW in Week 6
Cody Chovancek vs Uchegbu is also in Week 6
Brahyan Zurcher vs Murtazali Magomedov in Week 7 at FW
Seck vs Campbell is in Week 8
Vagabov vs Paulo da Silva is in Week 8
Louis Jourdain vs Magno Dias in Week 8 at BW
Imanol Rodriguez vs Roque Junior at flyweight in Week 9
Mulumba vs Marwan Rahiki in Week 10

 

[STAY GOLD]

Eduardo Chapolin vs. An Tuan Ho is another UFC level fight and another tough fight for Ho. Ho is a great fighter, but he's been thrown to the wolves twice. Even if he loses again, I hope he doesn't get discouraged and keeps winning in LFA and he gets signed to the UFC at some point.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Eduardo Chapolin vs. An Tuan Ho is another UFC level fight and another tough fight for Ho. Ho is a great fighter, but he's been thrown to the wolves twice. Even if he loses again, I hope he doesn't get discouraged and keeps winning in LFA and he gets signed to the UFC at some point.

Yeah it's basically an LFA title fight on contender series

 

[Marko Atanasovik]

Week #4 Prospect to watch: Cezary Oleksiejczuk




You don't need to talk much about him, just let his fights.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Week #4 Prospect to watch: Cezary Oleksiejczuk




You don't need to talk much about him, just let his fights.

Yeah him and David Mgoyan for me.

 

[The_Renaissance]

Week #4 Prospect to watch: Cezary Oleksiejczuk




You don't need to talk much about him, just let his fights.

Isn't his opponent pretty good though?

 

[Koala]

Cezary has one loss to a Chechen-Dagestani grappler, a lower-level version of Khabib
Theo Haig has all his wins coming by submission. It could be the upset of the season
Fighting Nerds vs AKA

 

[The_Renaissance]

Cezary has one loss to a Chechen-Dagestani grappler, a lower-level version of Khabib
Theo Haig has all his wins coming by submission. It could be the upset of the season
Fighting Nerds vs AKA

I actually think Haig beats him.

 

[Marko Atanasovik]

Isn't his opponent pretty good though?

He never faced anyone who can make him trouble. There are a lot of questions. What if the first initial takedown attempts don't go through and he doesn't establish his rhythm?
I imagine fight like against Aigun, but this time by KO/TKO in later rounds.

 

[Koala]

Week 6: Ivan Gnizditski out because of visa issues, Quentin Pasley in

Quentin Pasley | MMA Fighter Page | Tapology

Quentin Pasley (3-0-0) is a Pro MMA Fighter out of New Haven, Connecticut and the #11th ranked Pro Mens Light Heavyweight in US Northeast. View complete Tapology profile, bio, rankings, photos, news and record.

www.tapology.com

Pasley is 3-0 against fighters 0-8. He's most likely the greener guy on DWCS since Bo Nickal
His opponent, Felipe Franco, 8-0, has also been mostly can-crushing

Felipe Franco ("Negão") | MMA Fighter Page | Tapology

Felipe "Negão" Franco (8-1-0) is a Pro MMA Fighter out of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil and the #27th ranked Pro Mens Light Heavyweight in Brazil. View complete Tapology profile, bio, rankings, photos, news and record.

www.tapology.com

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Week 6: Ivan Gnizditski out because of visa issues, Quentin Pasley in

Quentin Pasley | MMA Fighter Page | Tapology

Quentin Pasley (3-0-0) is a Pro MMA Fighter out of New Haven, Connecticut and the #11th ranked Pro Mens Light Heavyweight in US Northeast. View complete Tapology profile, bio, rankings, photos, news and record.

www.tapology.com

Pasley is 3-0 against fighters 0-8. He's most likely the greener guy on DWCS since Bo Nickal
His opponent, Felipe Franco, 8-0, has also been mostly can-crushing

Felipe Franco ("Negão") | MMA Fighter Page | Tapology

Felipe "Negão" Franco (8-1-0) is a Pro MMA Fighter out of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil and the #27th ranked Pro Mens Light Heavyweight in Brazil. View complete Tapology profile, bio, rankings, photos, news and record.

www.tapology.com

Franco passed the eye test for me. He reminds me of Jailton Almeida.

Haven't seen this Pasley chap.

 

[The_Renaissance]

Franco passed the eye test for me. He reminds me of Jailton Almeida.

Haven't seen this Pasley chap.

Even if this guy was to win, he's far too green in terms of record numbers - as Tresean Gore showed, getting to the UFC at 3-0 can get very ugly very quickly in terms of how your record looks on paper.

 

[Koala]

Week 9: Luke Fernandez vs Pergentino at LHW. It's gonna be Pergentino's first fight at LHW
I guess they're figuring out if Joksovic can make it for the last week or finding a substitute to fight Michael Oliveira but I think the rest of the cast is done (outside late notice replacements)

 

[Ares Black]

This next episode is crazy. So much talent.

 

[Koala]

Guilherme Pat is out of the week 5 fight against Guarascio due to visa issues. (Maybe doing an episode in Brazil and another one in the UAE could be a good way to prevent these issues; they used to have Brazil DWCS.)
Steven Asplund is taking the spot. He was the only HW with a fight booked soon and a winning streak in a good promotion. He's a fat lad who gas out fast

Steven Asplund ("Concrete") | MMA Fighter Page | Tapology

Steven "Concrete" Asplund (6-1-0) is a Pro MMA Fighter out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States and the #18th ranked Pro Mens Heavyweight in North America. View complete Tapology profile, bio, rankings, photos, news and record.

www.tapology.com

I would have taken Isiah Pinson (LHW who used to fight at HW) on the same card

On another note, Harry Hardwick, Cage Warriors champ at FW, is going directly to the UFC on short notice to fight Kaue Fernandes at LW in Paris

 

[The_Renaissance]

I still favour face-tatts by KO. Asplund isn't a horrible HW though.

Crazy short notice debut for Hardwick.

 

[Deltron 6060]

Yeah him and David Mgoyan for me.

I got McMillen in that one, although both have only crushed cans so far. McMillen dominated everyone in 1 rd.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

I got McMillen in that one, although both have only crushed cans so far. McMillen dominated everyone in 1 rd.

Yeah I like the look of Tommy too. I think this could be a UFC level fight

 

[Marko Atanasovik]

Week 5 Prospect to Watch: Shanelle Dyer

Shanelle Dyer is very young and promising, with the necessary athleticism to one day reach the top of the division, provided she continues to develop in the right direction. Her movement and kicks are excellent, but she needs a bit more creativity. She's strong in over/under positions and has good control on the ground.

Carol Foro is a good test for her durability.

 

[Koala]

Week 6: Ivan Gnizditski out because of visa issues, Quentin Pasley in

Quentin Pasley | MMA Fighter Page | Tapology

Quentin Pasley (3-0-0) is a Pro MMA Fighter out of New Haven, Connecticut and the #11th ranked Pro Mens Light Heavyweight in US Northeast. View complete Tapology profile, bio, rankings, photos, news and record.

www.tapology.com

Pasley is 3-0 against fighters 0-8. He's most likely the greener guy on DWCS since Bo Nickal
His opponent, Felipe Franco, 8-0, has also been mostly can-crushing

Felipe Franco ("Negão") | MMA Fighter Page | Tapology

Felipe "Negão" Franco (8-1-0) is a Pro MMA Fighter out of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil and the #27th ranked Pro Mens Light Heavyweight in Brazil. View complete Tapology profile, bio, rankings, photos, news and record.

www.tapology.com

Pasley is out
Vidal is in

Freddy Vidal ("The Barbarian") | MMA Fighter Page | Tapology

Freddy "The Barbarian" Vidal (4-0-0) is a Pro MMA Fighter out of New York, United States and the #3rd ranked Pro Mens Light Heavyweight in US Northeast. View complete Tapology profile, bio, rankings, photos, news and record.

www.tapology.com

He's a Serra-Longo guy