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.

Cristian Perez (14-2 MMA)

Age: 27 years old

Height: 5’9″ / Reach: 72″

Weight Class: Lightweight(155lbs.)

First DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2025 (Week 3)

Old DW’s Contender Series Opponent: Manoel Sousa (14-1 MMA)

Second DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2026 (Week 2)

New Opponent: Logan Paxton (10-1 MMA)

First Contender Series Fight

Before his first appearance on the Contender Series, Cristian Perez was a veteran of the Combate Americas (later rebranded Combate Global) promotions. He was 10-1 with Combate Global and 3-0 under the Combate Americas banner.

Cristian also competed under the Karate Combat promotional banner in 2024 in the fight before his Contender Series appearance.

Cristian’s sole loss ahead of his first Contender Series appearance was against Enrique Gonzalez. Perez ended up losing a unanimous decision in what was the Combat Global lightweight tournament championship.

Perez largely controlled the first two rounds of his Contender Series bout against Sousa. However, with all the wrestling and grappling, by the final round Perez had exhausted himself. Sousa was able to rally and get the TKO finish late in the final round to steal the win.

First Contender Series Opponent

Manoel Sousa earned a contract as a result of his third-round finish over Cristian Perez.

Sousa would wait nearly seven months until making his octagon debut against Bolaji Oki. Manoel made the most of his first promotional appearance, stopping Oki late in the third round with a straight right. The finish earned Sousa a $100k performance bonus.

Manoel made his sophomore outing recently when he took on a 13-1, Richie Miranda on August 8th. Sousa tallied a unanimous decision victory and is now 2-0 with the UFC.

Sousa’s opponents have a combined UFC record of 2-4. But that’s not his fault. Sousa has looked great in his fights with the promotion so far, and that’s part of the reason why Perez is getting another shot.

The Road Back

Since losing on the Contender Series last year, Perez has fought one time and had one cancelled bout.

Back in April, Perez took on Gilberto Santos who entered the fight with a 6-7 record for the main event of Elite Xtreme Fighting 23 (EXF). Gonzalez took a less than half the round to finish the fight on the ground, landing damaging strikes from a back mount position.

That bout was all that UFC brass needed to see as Cristian received a return invitation to the Contender Series.

Gameplan/New Opponent

For his shot at redemption on the Contender Series, Cristian will be taking on 10-1, Logan Paxton.

Paxton has gone the distance just twice in his MMA career. One of them came in his only loss, which was his second pro fight opposite a 2-0, JaCobi Jones. Jones is now an 11-fight veteran of the LFA and had his own shot on the Contender Series back in 2023. Jones lost a decision to Daniel Allen who didn’t receive a UFC contract after his performance (and hasn’t fought since).

Combined record of the guys that Logan has fought at the time he fought them is: 45-68.

This should be a good scrap as Cristian looks to give himself a belated 27th birthday present in the form of a UFC contract.