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.
Nick Piccininni (7-0 MMA)
Age: 27 years old
Height: 5’6″ / Reach: 66″
Weight Class: Flyweight (125lbs.)
First DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2024 (Week 3)
Old DW’s Contender Series Opponent: Jack Duffy (7-0 MMA)
Second DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2024 (Week 10)
New Opponent: Luis Gurule (9-0 MMA)
First Contender Series Fight
Nick Piccininni received his first fight on the Contender Series earlier this year after stacking wins up to a 6-0 record. Piccininni finished five of the six opponents that he faced by way of submission and has only been a pro since June of 2021.
Nick is a veteran of both the Oklahoma-based Xtreme Fight Night promotion and the Texas-based, Fury Fighting Championships. In his final fight before his first bout on the Contender Series, Nick took out then 7-3, Jomar Pa-ac via fourth round submission.
Nick’s first appearance on the Contender Series was a very hard-fought split decision win over his opponent.
First Contender Series Opponent
For his first fight on the Contender Series Nick Piccininni faced Jack Duffy. Jack is a Team Alpha Male product and has been a pro since 2012. Between 2012 and 2019 Duffy went 5-0, stopping all of his opponents in the first round.
Duffy had competed just two times since 2019, heading into his bout with Piccininni earlier in the season. Both opponents had winning records, and one had nearly 20 fights.
Jack also had two separate opponents drop out heading into his CS bout with Nick. First Mitch Raposo and then Jose Ochoa.
The Road Back
Because of the spilt decision between Nick and Jack back in Week 3 of DWCS, the two fighters were supposed to rematch. And because the rematch was supposed to be on the same season, obviously, Nick has not scheduled a fight since his last appearance almost two months ago.
Gameplan/ New Opponent
For his shot at redemption on the Contender Series, Nick will be taking on Luis Gurule. The rematch with Duffy will not happen on this season of the Contender Series after Jack withdrew from the bout forcing Nick to get a new opponent.
Nick’s new opponent, Gurule, has stopped all but three of the nine opponents that he has faced in his pro career. Luis is a two-fight veteran of the LFA and a five-fight veteran of the Fury FC promotion.
Gurule has faced solid competition in his pro career thus far, only fighting one opponent with a losing record. (4-5 and it was his fourth fight.) In Gurule’s most recent fight he defeated Jacob Silva via fourth round arm-triangle choke to capture the FFC Flyweight championship.
At 30 years old, Gurule has looked great in his career so far and will be an extremely tall task for Nick’s second appearance on the Contender Series.
