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.
An Tuan Ho (7-1 MMA)
Age: 24 years old
Height: 5’6″ / Reach: 66.5
Weight Class: Flyweight (125lbs.)
First DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2024 (Week 1)
Old DW’s Contender Series Opponent: Lone’er Kavanagh (9-1 MMA)
Second DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2025 (Week 4)
New Opponent: Eduardo Henrique (14-2 MMA)
First Contender Series Fight
An Tuan Ho first competed on the Contender Series on August 13 of last year. An’s first appearance on the Contender Series was birthed from a 7-0 amateur MMA career and a 6-0 career as a pro. As an amateur, An Tuan Ho stopped five of his opponents and was a champion of the Arizona based Cage Rage on the River (RUF) promotion.
All six of his pro fights were under the Legacy Fighting Alliance (LFA) banner based out of Houston, Texas. As a pro An stopped four of his six opponents and even pulled off a kneebar. The most experienced opponent that he faced was Kedrick Latchman, then 9-9, who he stopped in the first round. The best win by An, prior his first DWCS appearance, came against Miguel Sanson in February of 2024. Tuan Ho logged a unanimous decision victory. Miguel Sanson was 4-1 then, fell to 4-2- and he hasn’t lost since. He’s now 8-2 now and might actually be a fighter to look out for in the future. This is a win that has aged great for An.
In his first appearance on the Contender Series An fought well but was stopped with a left hook midway thru the first round. First loss and a stoppage on top of it.
First Contender Series Opponent
In his first appearance on the Contender Series, An Tuan Ho faced Lone’er Kavanagh who entered the fight at 6-0, just like An. Kavanagh, much like An, had competed in the majority of his pro fights (four of six) with one promotion, Cage Warriors, based out of England. Kavanagh was also an amateur MMA champion, though he didn’t have nearly as flawless of an amateur record as An, at 2-2-2, 1 NC.
But obviously Lone’er picked up a contract and was signed to the UFC after his finish of An Tuan Ho. For his UFC debut, just three months later in November, Lone’er faced another undefeated fighter in 7-0 Jose Ochoa. Kavanagh secured a unanimous decision victory with a hard-nosed performance.
Earlier this year in March, Lone’er took on an 8-2, Felipe dos Santos. Felipe had given Manel Kape, a ranked flyweight, a run for his money in a short notice, Fight of the Night winning performance in his promotional debut. Kavanagh was able to secure another unanimous decision.
In his most recent fight, Kavanagh faced his largest test to date, in the form of Charles Johnson, a 17-7, 11-fight vet of the UFC. Charles was fresh off of losing his ranking. Johnson stopped Kavanagh with strikes in the second.
Lone’er’s activity and ascension to just outside the top 15 of the flyweight division has made the 2024 loss age very well for An Tuan Ho.
The Road Back
Since his appearance on the Contender Series last year, Tuan Ho has competed one time. It was back under the LFA banner against a 3-4 opponent in Jimi Natividad, granted, Natividad was not the originally scheduled opponent. Instead, Tuan Ho was supposed to face a 6-0 Micah Haas. That fight never went down and instead Tuan Ho steamrolled Jimi in 16 seconds.
That was enough to get An invited back for a shot at redemption on the Contender Series. An Tuan Ho was supposed to fight Frank Silva, virtually identical record at 7-0-1, and just turned 21.
Gameplan/New Opponent
With Silva now out, An Tuan Ho will instead be facing Eduardo Henrqiue for his shot at redemption. Eduardo has quite a bit of experience at 14-2 and was actually the defending champion in the LFA. One of his two losses came against then 5-1 Kleydeson Rodrigues in late 2019 via second round rear naked choke. Rodrigues, also a Contender Series veteran, won a contract in 2021 before going 1-3 with the UFC.
Eduardo’s only other pro loss was against a then 12-3 Davi Bittencourt, in Henrique’s LFA debut via unanimous decision. That was July of 2022 and Bittencourt got a shot on the Contender Series in October of 2023. However, it didn’t go his way as he was KO’d by Lucas Rocha (but Bittencourt is another fighter that fans could expect to see in the future).
Eduardo has faced really good competition on the regional scene. He’s also had a nice title span while in the LFA, winning the belt in 2023 with a fourth-round finish over an 8-1 Cody Davis. Henrique’s stopped an 8-2 fighter and a 10-2 fighter in the first round in the two title defenses since then.
It’s a tall task for An but An’s amateur and pro MMA career is virtually unblemished it’s just the stoppage loss to Kavanagh. Regardless, Eduardo has been tried and tested against UFC caliber guys. He’s more than ready to be on the roster, on paper at least.
Tough fight for An Tuan Ho but if he gets a win, by any means, he’ll undoubtedly secure a contract.
