If you’re a fan of Dana White’s Contender Series and The Ultimate Fighter, some good news, as there will be more of both soon enough — including a second Contender Series run this year.
Las Vegas, NV — Dana White handed out four contracts once again this Tuesday on the Contender Series. This time, it was Aalon Cruz, Tracy Cortez, Aleksa Camur, and Rodrigo Nascimento. Names not all that well known to UFC fans, yet. But some day, they may be. And for Aalon Cruz, who won his way into the promotion with a crushing flying knee on Tuesday, that day may have already arrived.
White was bullish on the bookings Tuesday following the fights, telling reporters including Cageside Press that “the matchmaking is just f*cking awesome. To see some of these fights play out — the last fight I was like ‘when these two start engaging, this fight’s going to be ridiculous.’ Two big, strong, well rounded athletes. And boom, boom there it was.”
That, of course, was the Cruz fight. Keeping that level of quality up, of course, is hard. Especially when White would love to up the frequency of the show. “When you match-make these type of fights with this type of talent, the pool isn’t deep enough to keep doing this every Tuesday. To do this every week, you just don’t have a deep enough pool, especially the quality of people who could get into the UFC and compete here. It makes it tough,” he said.
But while not every week, a second run of Dana White’s Contender Series will happen this year. “They [the matchmakers] said no and I said yes.”
“We’ll do a second season. It’ll be Fight Pass,” he revealed. Which means fans have a lot more action on Tuesday nights to look forward to.
One thing White feels the promotion needs to get better at is getting the Contender Series athlete’s stories out sooner, rather than introducing fans to fighters the night of. Although White himself remains intentionally in the dark prior to fight night. “What I do is, when I come here today, when I got here at 4:45, I don’t know anybody on this list. I don’t know anything about them. I haven’t read anything, I know nothing until I sit down at the table and look at the first fight”
Reason being, “that way I’m not swayed by ‘oh, I’m from Boston, and Joe Lauzon has this guy, and Joe Lauzon’s boxing coach is one of my good friends. And Stipe Miocic has the guy in the main event.’ I don’t know any of this shit. I come in clean, no bias, nothing.”
White also confirmed the return of The Ultimate Fighter, something he hinted at earlier in the year. There’s no word yet on if that will be on ESPN or UFC Fight Pass. “We’re working on that right now,” said White.
The UFC President is still big on the show that reportedly saved the UFC back in 2005. “I truly believe that The Ultimate Fighter is so key in building young talent,” White said. Citing the training schedule, isolation from friends and family, constant camera presence, repeated weight cuts, and hardcore training, White added that “if you can make it through The Ultimate Fighter, if you actually win it, if you go back through history and look at The Ultimate Fighter, and the fighters that have come off there, it’s just the greatest training ground ever for up and coming fighters. It can’t go away, ever.”
Watch the full press scrum with Dana White from the Contender Series 2019 Week 6 above!
