Dana White’s Contender Series began back in 2017. Since then, the Contender Series has produced some big-name upcoming stars like Dan Ige, Sean O’Malley, Geoff Neal, Maycee Barber, and Edmen Shahbazyan. In short, it has been a huge success.
A Contender Series fight is one that has stakes like none other, where fighters must showcase their skills to impress the UFC president enough for a contract with the promotional giant. Holding the Contender Series with a smaller cage inside the UFC Apex venue makes for a tense atmosphere, and with only close friends and family of the competing fighters in attendance as spectators. Emotions always run high, as a limited number of contracts can be given out on any given night, and many fighters can potentially have their dreams snubbed out solely because of bad luck.
In rare cases, however, a fighter gets a second look. This series will examine those.
For this week, the 6th week of the Contender Series for 2023, the Redemption Series will be taking a look at multiple fighters including, Malik Lewis.
Malik “Hard Knock” Lewis (6-1 MMA)
Age: 27 years old
Height: 6’0″ / Reach: 76″
Weight Class: Lightweight (155lbs.)
First DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2022 (Week 8)
Old DW’s Contender Series Opponent: Trevor Peek (8-1 MMA)
Second DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2023 (Week 6)
New Opponent: James Llontop (13-2)
First Contender Series Fight
When Malik Lewis fights on September 12th it will be just one day shy of a complete year since he first competed on the Contender Series. Malik earned his shot on the Contender Series by violently finishing every one of his opponents inside of two rounds while also demonstrating patience and amazing shot selection.
In the fight on the Contender Series after seeing some adversary in a scary exchange early Lewis engaged in the clinch and although he was unsuccessful in getting Trevor Peek to the ground, he was able to slow down his opponent and control an exchange on the break and drop his opponent.
Throughout the first round Malik showed perfect shot selection hitting the mark and his targets perfectly though he began to devolve throughout the round as he began to fatigue.
Just a bit too sloppy on his grappling and Trevor was continually able to get away from his attempts to control him and look to set up a submission.
Unfortunately for Malik he continued to gas during the second round and Peek came out looking like a superhero, taking advantage of Malik’s fatigue and eventually dragging him to the ground and scoring a ground n’ pound finish.
First Contender Series Opponent
Trevor Peek, Malik’s opponent in his first Contender Series fight, is what can only be described as an absolute wild man in terms of fighting styles.
Peek entered the fight with Lewis riding a seven-fight finishing streak, including a finish over the five-fight UFC veteran Khama Worthy a month prior to the fight. This is the fight/win that attracted the attention of the UFC.
Since being signed to the UFC after his win over Lewis, Trevor has gone 1-1 with the promotion.
Peek first won an absolute barn burner of a fight, finishing Eric Gonzalez with a barrage of unorthodox punches. The finish, that came with just one second left in the first round, earned Peek Performance of the Night honors.
Peek recently dropped a decision to a tough, 15-6 Chepe Mariscal, who is now 2-0 with the UFC. Peek is slated to take on 12-3 Mohammad Yahya at UFC 294 next month and so it’s a loss that has not lowered Malik’s stock.
The Road Back
Malik has competed just once since his first Contender Series appearance a year ago.
In February Malik took on then 8-6 Paulo Silva at Peak Fighting 26. It was Malik’s longest fight to date, as he finished his opponent with just seven seconds left in the third round of a five-round bout.
With the finish Malik became the PF Lightweight Champion and again attracted the attention of the UFC.
Gameplan/ New Opponent
Malik will be facing James Llontop for his shot at redemption on the Contender Series.
James Llontop is on an 11-fight win streak that includes six finishes. All but one of these fights were under the Peru based Fusion Fighting Championship. James is the current FFC Welterweight champion winning his belt last year and has successfully defended it one time. Llontop is currently among the best and brightest prospects that Peru has to offer at the age of 24.
It’s going to be imperative for Malik to get his opponent out of there as early as possible without gassing himself like in the Peek fight. His stand-up is great, and he has good submission threats especially while he is fresh. Trevor is an exceptionally tough human being, but Malik did begin to fade midway through the first round. If it was an adrenaline dump, maybe the second time around will be a little better.
This is sure to be a good fight for as long as it lasts.
