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 for finding talent.
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.
Rizvan Kuniev (12-2-1 MMA)
Age: 31 years old
Height: 6’4″ / Reach: 76″
Weight Class: Heavyweight (265lbs.)
First DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2021 (Week 5)
Old DW’s Contender Series Opponent: Edivan Santos (17-5 MMA)
Second DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2024 (Week 2)
New Opponent: Hugo Cunha (8-1 MMA)
First Contender Series Fight
Ruizvan Kuniev was first on the Contender Series on week 5 of the 2021 season. Ruizvan entered the fight on an eight-fight winning streak dating back to his pair of loss to eventual UFC veterans in Darko Stosic and Justin Willis in 2014 and 2015.
Rizvan was a veteran of ProFC and Gorilla Fighting Championship. Kuniev became the heavyweight champion of Eagle FC, in the fight prior to his appearance on the Contender Series.
Rizvan got the third-round ground n’ pound finish over his opponent but ultimately did not receive a contract.
It’s worth noting that Kuniev shared his Contender Series card with Daniel Zellhuber, Caio Borralho and Ihor Potieria. All three would win contracts (Borralho won a contract later in the season) and would go on to become UFC standouts.
First Contender Series Opponent
In his first fight on the Contender Series, Rizvan Kuniev squared off against Edivan Santos. Edivan entered the fight with a 12-2 record in pro MMA.
Obviously, Santos was not selected to receive a UFC contract and the then 29-year-old returned to the regional circuit of Russia and Brazil. (Competing for Fight Music Show and Open Fighting Championship, among others)
Santos has been incredibly active and has competed something like 10 times since fighting Kuniev. Three of those bouts were deemed ineligible to add to his official pro MMA record. But even without those bouts, Santos has gone 5-2 in that three-year span.
The Road Back
In the three years since his first fight on the Contender Series, Rizvan Kuniev has competed twice.
Rizvan returned to EFC in March of 2022 and submitted his opponent, then 18-10, Anthony Hamilton, in the first round with a guillotine choke. Hamilton was a 41-year-old and 10 fight veteran of the UFC. So while Anthony was a bit out of his prime, he was still a solid matchup for Kuniev.
Most recently Kuniev fought then 9-3 fighter, Renan Ferreira, in April of 2023. Originally a unanimous decision victory for Rizvan, the fight was overturned to a no contest when he tested positive for anabolic steroids drostanolone, metenelone, boldenone, 19-norandrosterone. This fight was over in the PFL and ages nicely as Ferreira is 4-0 since the bout. Ferreira won the 2023 tournament season of the PFL’s heavyweight division and recently had a fight announced against former UFC heavyweight champion, Francis NGannou.
Gameplan/ New Opponent
For his second chance on the Contender Series, Rizvan Kuniev, will be taking on Hugo Cunha. Hugo is just 31 years old and turned pro in 2017. After finishing his first six opponents on smaller shows, with only one bout making it out of the first round, Hugo stepped up to ONE Championship. Hugo would lose a split decision to then 6-1, Dustin Joynson.
Since then, Cunha has fought twice under the LFA banner. Last May he stopped then 11-7, Fernando Batista, in the first round of their bout. And in his most recent bout, last November, Hugo stopped the LFA heavyweight champion, then 7-2, Eduardo Neves, in the second round to capture the heavyweight strap.
