UPDATED: 20 PERCENT of the UFC roster is from contender series

Im certain these guys pick up real nice contracts...
For the UFC atleast. Cheaper than keeping some of the vets around. The level of competition has been pretty shitty tho.

And Dana tries to diminish the amount of decent grapplers in the UFC by letting guys swing for the fences
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Oh yeah, I forgot to mention a really important one: Giga Chikadze got choked stiff on DWCS, then went back to crushing cans in Gladiator Challenge, then got brought back to the UFC on short-notice (to fight DWCS contract winner Brandon Davis, who has since been cut) and has been dominating ever since.

4 out of his 5 UFC wins came from fighters making their debut expect Omar Morales
 
Current DCWS alumni in the UFC (* indicates not awarded a contract on the show but did appear afterwards)

Mariya Agapova
Kevin Aguilar
Bill Algeo
John Allan
Brendan Allen
Sarah Alpar
Rafael Alves
Collin Anglin
Julio Arce
Antonio Arroyo
Hunter Azure
Miguel Baeza
Ignacio Bahamondes
Maycee Barber
Peter Barrett
Rogerio Bontorin
TJ Brown
Mayra Bueno Silva
Herbert Burns
Cheyanne Buys
JP Buys
Charles Byrd
Aleksa Camur
John Castaneda
Luana Carolina
Giga Chikadze
Louis Cocse
Orion Cocse
Tracy Cortez
Jimmy Crute
Aalon Cruz
Kyle Daukaus
Mike Davis
Grant Dawson
Martin Day
Yorgan De Castro
Gloria De Paula
Jamall Emmers
Julian Erosa
Jordan Espinosa
Jimmy Flick
Matt Frevola
Steve Garcia
Hannah Goldy
Dwight Grant
Tony Gravely
Jordan Griffin
Chris Gutierrez
Greg Hardy
Phil Hawes
Ian Heinisch
Anthony Hernandez
Jamahal Hill
Kevin Holland
Chase Hooper
Colin Huckbody
Dan Ige
Montel Jackson
Dustin Jacoby
Miles Johns
Impa Kasanganay
Casey Kenney
Aliaskhab Khizriev
Jacob Kilburn
William Knight
TJ Laramie
Ronnie Lawrence
Jordan Leavitt
Victoria Leonardo
Natan Levy
Benito Lopez
Tucker Lutz
Julian Marquez
Mallory Martin
Don'Tale Mayes
Cory McKenna
Uros Medic
Alonzo Menifield
Darrick Minner
Thiago Moises
Jeffrey Molina
Omar Morales
Vince Morales
Vinicius Moreira
Nikolas Motta
Andre Muniz
Alexander Munoz
Rodrigo Nasciemento
Tafon Nchukwi
Geoff Neal
Kennedy Nzechukwu
Sean O'Malley
Ode Osbourne
Raulian Paiva
Josh Parisian
Jonathan Pearce
Alex Perez
Steven Peterson
Kyler Phillips
Jamie Pickett
Domingo Pilarte
Luana Pinheiro
Maki Pitolo
Billy Quarantillo
Jerome Rivera
Karl Roberson
Roosevelt Roberts
Daniel Rodriguez
Drako Rodriguez
Marina Rodriguez
Mike Rodriguez
Ray Rodriguez
Philip Rowe
Augusto Sakai
Luis Saldana
Taila Santos
Matt Sayles
Edmen Shahbazyan
Antonina Shevchenko
Ricky Simon
Devonte Smith
Joe Solecki
Punahele Soriano
Ryan Spann
Dustin Stolzfus
Dusko Todorovic
Jalin Turner
Carlos Ullberg
Jared Vanderaa
Johnny Walker
Brok Weaver
Jordan Williams
Danyelle Wolf
Sean Woodson
Jordan Wright
Adrian Yanez
Shanna Young
Sodiq Yusuff


So I make it 138 Contender Series alumni on the roster out of a roster of 693 making Contender Series fighters about 20% of the UFC.



Yes it is very slow at work today.
 
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Not really.

Biggest difference is that fighters get a lot more eye balls on them if their first fight in the company is on contenders as opposed to some random prelim fight.

That’s what the show is, UFC prelims with extra bells and whistles

Good analysis.
 
Current DCWS alumni in the UFC (* indicates not awarded a contract on the show but did appear afterwards)

Mariya Agapova
Kevin Aguilar
Bill Algeo
John Allan
Brendan Allen
Sarah Alpar
Rafael Alves
Collin Anglin
Julio Arce
Antonio Arroyo
Hunter Azure
Miguel Baeza
Ignacio Bahamondes
Maycee Barber
Peter Barrett
Rogerio Bontorin
Calen Born
TJ Brown
Mayra Bueno Silva
Herbert Burns
Cheyanne Buys
JP Buys
Charles Byrd
Aleksa Camur
John Castaneda
Luana Carolina
Giga Chikadze
Louis Cocse
Orion Cocse
Tracy Cortez
Jimmy Crute
Aalon Cruz
Kyle Daukaus
Mike Davis
Grant Dawson
Martin Day
Yorgan De Castro
Gloria De Paula
Jamall Emmers
Julian Erosa
Jordan Espinosa
Jimmy Flick
Matt Frevola
Steve Garcia
Hannah Goldy
Dwight Grant
Tony Gravely
Jordan Griffin
Chris Gutierrez
Greg Hardy
Phil Hawes
Ian Heinisch
Anthony Hernandez
Jamahal Hill
Kevin Holland
Chase Hooper
Colin Huckbody
Dan Ige
Montel Jackson
Dustin Jacoby
Miles Johns
Impa Kasanganay
Casey Kenney
Aliaskhab Khizriev
Jacob Kilburn
William Knight
TJ Laramie
Ronnie Lawrence
Jordan Leavitt
Victoria Leonardo
Natan Levy
Benito Lopez
Tucker Lutz
Julian Marquez
Mallory Martin
Don'Tale Mayes
Cory McKenna
Uros Medic
Alonzo Menifield
Darrick Minner
Thiago Moises
Jeffrey Molina
Omar Morales
Vince Morales
Vinicius Moreira
Nikolas Motta
Andre Muniz
Alexander Munoz
Rodrigo Nasciemento
Tafon Nchukwi
Geoff Neal
Kennedy Nzechukwu
Sean O'Malley
Ode Osbourne
Raulian Paiva
Josh Parisian
Jonathan Pearce
Alex Perez
Steven Peterson
Kyler Phillips
Jamie Pickett
Domingo Pilarte
Luana Pinheiro
Maki Pitolo
Billy Quarantillo
Jerome Rivera
Karl Roberson
Roosevelt Roberts
Daniel Rodriguez
Drako Rodriguez
Marina Rodriguez
Mike Rodriguez
Ray Rodriguez
Philip Rowe
Augusto Sakai
Luis Saldana
Taila Santos
Matt Sayles
Edmen Shahbazyan
Antonina Shevchenko
Ricky Simon
Devonte Smith
Joe Solecki
Punahele Soriano
Ryan Spann
Dustin Stolzfus
Dusko Todorovic
Jalin Turner
Carlos Ullberg
Jared Vanderaa
Johnny Walker
Brok Weaver
Jordan Williams
Danyelle Wolf
Sean Woodson
Jordan Wright
Adrian Yanez
Shanna Young
Sodiq Yusuff


  • So I make it 139 Contender Series alumni on the roster out of a roster of 693 making Contender Series fighters about 20% of the UFC.



Yes it is very slow at work today.


Great Job Man!!!!
 
Just out of interest I checked and there are 94 TUF fighters left on the roster (there's a few double duty pullers who've been on both TUF and DWCS)

JJ Aldrich
Warlley Alves
Sam Alvey
Enrique Barzola
Gabriel Benitez
Matt Brown
Alex Caceres
Joanne Calderwood
Guido Cannetti
Antonio Carlos Jr
Alex Chambers
Macy Chiasson
Michael Chiesa
Paulo Costa
Zak Cummings
Montana De La Rosa
Marcos Rogerio De Lima
Nate Diaz
TJ Dillashaw
Shana Dobson
Tim Elliott
Julian Erosa
Carla Esparza
Juan Espino
Sijara Eubanks
Tony Ferguson
Kelvin Gastelum
Davey Grant
Maurice Greene
Chris Gruetzemacher
Ryan Hall
Uriah Hall
Ed Herman
Felice Herrig
Angela Hill
Al Iaquinta
Michael Johnson
Kai Kara-France
Pannie Kianzad
Justine Kish
James Krause
Chad Laprise
Joe Lauzon
Leah Letson
Dhiego Lima
Vicente Luque
Neil Magny
Bea Malecki
Randa Markos
Jake Matthews
Court McGee
Bryce Mitchell
Roxanne Modafferi
Nicco Montano
Sarah Moras
Brandon Moreno
Nikolas Motta
Lauren Murphy
Rose Namajunas
Rachel Ostovich
Alexandre Pantoja
Josh Parisian
Julianna Pena
Luis Pena
Jessica Penne
Raquel Pennington
Alejandro Perez
Kyler Phillips
Vinc Pichel
Santiago Ponzinibbio
Billy Quarantillo
Jose Quinonez
Gillian Roberson
Yair Rodriguez
Khalil Rountree
Andrew Sanchez
Diego Sanchez
Leonardo Santos
Thiago Santos
Matt Schnell
Brad Scott
Joaquim Silva
Julia Stojliarenko
Tatiana Suarez
Brad Tavares
David Teymur
Tecia Torres
Francisco Trinaldo
Mike Trizano
Kamaru Usman
Marlon Vera
Emily Whitmire
Robert Whittaker
Ashley Yoder
 
Of course it is - where else are they going to get talent from. Fertittas sold when they did for a reason. I actually give Dana credit for not only standing ground during this pandemic but like a pit bull on a bone, making sure DWCS takes its weekly course. I'll go as far as saying that the contender series is super necessary for the downstream survival of the UFC.
 
Some of them have already been cut, so your math is off. Another Sherdog "I din't think this out before hitting create thread" moment.
 
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He just handed out a few contracts tonight. Tomorrow he is going to need to cut some fighters to make room. Fighters on the roster should be glad the season is over.
Technically, there is no limit to space on the roster. However, there are a limited number of fights available per year.
I pretty much only pay attention to ranked and soon to be ranked fighters, so I don't really care that Dana is making a legal version of Bum Fights.
A few years ago, this would have been such a casual response. Now, in late 2020? Totally reasonable. Events every weekend, with a lot of guys totally interchangable. I watch maybe 60% of the fights anymore myself, and have been watching steadily for 15 years.
Rotate the higher paid guys out, keep the fresh cheap ones coming. They are willing to ditch game plans and impress the boss by swangin’-n-bangin’ more than the vets
This is exactly it. fringe top 15 fighter took a loss or two this year? Gone. Replaced with a much cheaper DWCS guy who got a 1st rd KO but we really know nothing about his game. He'll get exposed in a fight or two, then cut, then replaced with another cheap acquisition.
As much as I love MMA, I kind of miss the days where we had a bit of time between cards and many of them felt truly stacked.

Sure, fights every week is cool and all, but seems like I can watch consistently and still not know 2/3rds of who's fighting. Nor really care since they're just bodies filling time slots.

I know it would never happen, but it would be awesome to see the UFC dial back the cards, get rid of DWCS and work with more regionals via Fight Pass. That way you can trim the fat and maintain the integrity of the UFC brand, while still providing fight content for the hardcore fans.
Yeah, unfortunately thats a pipe dream at this point.
Current DCWS alumni in the UFC (* indicates not awarded a contract on the show but did appear afterwards)

Mariya Agapova
Kevin Aguilar
Bill Algeo
John Allan
Brendan Allen
Sarah Alpar
Rafael Alves
Collin Anglin
Julio Arce
Antonio Arroyo
Hunter Azure
Miguel Baeza
Ignacio Bahamondes
Maycee Barber
Peter Barrett
Rogerio Bontorin
Calen Born
TJ Brown
Mayra Bueno Silva
Herbert Burns
Cheyanne Buys
JP Buys
Charles Byrd
Aleksa Camur
John Castaneda
Luana Carolina
Giga Chikadze
Louis Cocse
Orion Cocse
Tracy Cortez
Jimmy Crute
Aalon Cruz
Kyle Daukaus
Mike Davis
Grant Dawson
Martin Day
Yorgan De Castro
Gloria De Paula
Jamall Emmers
Julian Erosa
Jordan Espinosa
Jimmy Flick
Matt Frevola
Steve Garcia
Hannah Goldy
Dwight Grant
Tony Gravely
Jordan Griffin
Chris Gutierrez
Greg Hardy
Phil Hawes
Ian Heinisch
Anthony Hernandez
Jamahal Hill
Kevin Holland
Chase Hooper
Colin Huckbody
Dan Ige
Montel Jackson
Dustin Jacoby
Miles Johns
Impa Kasanganay
Casey Kenney
Aliaskhab Khizriev
Jacob Kilburn
William Knight
TJ Laramie
Ronnie Lawrence
Jordan Leavitt
Victoria Leonardo
Natan Levy
Benito Lopez
Tucker Lutz
Julian Marquez
Mallory Martin
Don'Tale Mayes
Cory McKenna
Uros Medic
Alonzo Menifield
Darrick Minner
Thiago Moises
Jeffrey Molina
Omar Morales
Vince Morales
Vinicius Moreira
Nikolas Motta
Andre Muniz
Alexander Munoz
Rodrigo Nasciemento
Tafon Nchukwi
Geoff Neal
Kennedy Nzechukwu
Sean O'Malley
Ode Osbourne
Raulian Paiva
Josh Parisian
Jonathan Pearce
Alex Perez
Steven Peterson
Kyler Phillips
Jamie Pickett
Domingo Pilarte
Luana Pinheiro
Maki Pitolo
Billy Quarantillo
Jerome Rivera
Karl Roberson
Roosevelt Roberts
Daniel Rodriguez
Drako Rodriguez
Marina Rodriguez
Mike Rodriguez
Ray Rodriguez
Philip Rowe
Augusto Sakai
Luis Saldana
Taila Santos
Matt Sayles
Edmen Shahbazyan
Antonina Shevchenko
Ricky Simon
Devonte Smith
Joe Solecki
Punahele Soriano
Ryan Spann
Dustin Stolzfus
Dusko Todorovic
Jalin Turner
Carlos Ullberg
Jared Vanderaa
Johnny Walker
Brok Weaver
Jordan Williams
Danyelle Wolf
Sean Woodson
Jordan Wright
Adrian Yanez
Shanna Young
Sodiq Yusuff

So I make it 139 Contender Series alumni on the roster out of a roster of 693 making Contender Series fighters about 20% of the UFC.

Yes it is very slow at work today.
I wouldn't call them alumni if they weren't signed directly from the show. So remove those guys who weren't, and you'd have the most accurate number.
 
I wouldn't call them alumni if they weren't signed directly from the show. So remove those guys who weren't, and you'd have the most accurate number.

I would personally. Otherwise the likes of Ige, Holland and Aguilar who weren't signed on the show they appeared on but made their UFC debuts without any other fights wouldn't count as Contender Series guys.
 
I would personally. Otherwise the likes of Ige, Holland and Aguilar who weren't signed on the show they appeared on but made their UFC debuts without any other fights wouldn't count as Contender Series guys.
kay, but top of your list is Agapova, who took two fights elsewhere. I'm sure there are others as well. They're not really "alumni" because they didn't graduate from the contenders series. Even the guys you listed didn't get signed from the show. They got signed out of expediency.
 
kay, but top of your list is Agapova, who took two fights elsewhere. I'm sure there are others as well. They're not really "alumni" because they didn't graduate from the contenders series. Even the guys you listed didn't get signed from the show. They got signed out of expediency.

Depends what you want to use the information for I guess. If someone wants to delete the guys who didn't get signed directly from the show from the list I put up and come up with a different figure than that's easy enough.
 
Current DCWS alumni in the UFC (* indicates not awarded a contract on the show but did appear afterwards)


Calen Born


So I make it 139 Contender Series alumni on the roster out of a roster of 693 making Contender Series fighters about 20% of the UFC.



Yes it is very slow at work today.

Born has never fought on the Contender series nor has he ever fought in the UFC.


https://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Calen-Born-252163
 
UFC is a shit org and doesn’t give two shots about its fighters, WME is doing a horrible job Reebok and ESPN+ are bad for the sport, but no one think about what’s best for the sport because this isn’t a real sport it’s just modern WWE + karate + chain link squared circle
 
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