Dana White’s Contender Series is back for season four and set to run from August to September. With the first event going down on August 4. Contracts have recently been going out and fights are in the process of being made. So far there have only been four fights confirmed. At heavyweight, it’s Chad Johnson vs. Josh Parisian, at lightweight Anthony Romero will fight Mike Breeden. Also at light heavyweight, Ibo Aslan vs Jose Augusto Azevedo Danilo Marques, and at flyweight Arman Ashimov vs. Luis Rodriguez, both broke first by us here at Cageside Press.
Confirmed Fighters:
Heavyweight
Chad Johnson, 6-1
Josh Parisian, 12-3
Light heavyweight
Ibo Aslan, 8-0
Danilo Marques, 9-2
William Knight, 7-1
Matheus Scheffel, 14-6
Ty Flores, 7-2
Middleweight
N/A
Welterweight
N/A
Lightweight
Kenny Cross, 10-3
Anthony Romero, 7-0
Victor Martinez, 12-4
Kevin Syler, 10-0
Mike Breeden, 8-2
Featherweight
N/A
Bantamweight
Mana Martinez, 6-1
Adrian Yanez, 10-3
JP Buys, 8-2
Brady Huang, 11-1
Flyweight
Jacob Silva, 6-2
Jeffrey Molina, 7-2
Jerome Rivera, 9-2
Nate Smith, 6-0
Luis Rodriguez, 11-1
Arman Ashimov, 11-3-1
(W) Featherweight
N/A
(W) Bantamweight
N/A
(W) Flyweight
Chelsea Hackett, 3-0-1
(W) Strawweight
Cheyenne Buys, 4-1
The following list of athletes are fighters Cageside Press has confirmed to be on the Contender Series as well this season.
TJ “The Truth” Laramie: Fighting out of Windsor, Ontario, Canada with a 13-3 pro record. Laramie fights out of the featherweight division is on a three-fight win streak. He holds a win over UFC fighter Charles Jourdain. Laramie is also the current PFC champ and the former TKO champion. Although his participation hasn’t been made public yet the news was first reported by James Lynch from The Score.
Collin Anglin: Fighting out of East Lansing, Michigan with a record of 7-1. The featherweight trains out of Scorpion Fighting System but moving to Denver, Colorado to train full time at Factory X. You may have seen Anglin compete on stages like LFA and WXC as both air exclusively on UFC Fight Pass.
Ronnie “The Heat” Lawrence: A bantamweight training out of Nashville, Tennessee. He’s currently on a two-fight win streak with his last win at LFA 67 in May of last year. His only loss is to UFC fighter Steve Garcia. Lawrence is the former Valor Fights bantamweight titleholder.
Cody Brundage: An undefeated light-heavyweight who is a training partner of Collin Anglin listed above. He’s 5-0 and the Lights Out Championship dual champ at light heavyweight and middleweight. Brundage wrestled in college and rose to be a two-time NCAA national qualifier in Division 2. He’s also married to former UFC fighter Amanda Bobby Cooper.
Al “Sweetness” Matavao: A light heavyweight out of Nu’uuli is 8-2 overall as a professional. His last loss was to Jake Heun but since then he has won his next four fights. In his most recent fight, he scored a 16-second knockout. Matavao is the current X-1 World Events champion which is a promotion out of Hawaii.
“No Way / Los Lobos” Jose Johnson: An exciting bantamweight prospect on a current five-fight win streak. Johnson lives in Oak Harbor, Washington, and trains out of a small camp in StrKings. He’s the former WXC Bantamweight Champion and last fight made his debut for LFA. Johnson is known as a highlight-reel finisher.
Tafon “Da Don” Nchukwi: A native of Cameroon but has been living in Hyattsville, Maryland. Nchukwi is a WKA 2016 National champion, WKA 2017 national champion, and a WKA 2016 World champion. Nchukwi made waves in the MMA community when he beat UFC development deal holder William Knight last November. Knight was highly-touted, and Nchukwi finished him via strikes in round one. He’s only 3-0 but went 3-0 as an amateur and has a good team behind him at Team Lloyd Irvin. We spoke to him ahead of the Knight fight.
