Pereira (3-2) will take on Smilla Sundell (2-0) on the October 13, 2026 episode of Dana White’s Contender Series.

Journalist Léo Guimaraes was first to report news of the booking.

While neither fighter has what you would call an impressive record in mixed martial arts, their experience in other combat sports might make up the difference. Pereira, who has won her last two bouts and was most recently seen defeating Jade Masson-Wong on the MVP MMA 1 card back in May, has also competed in kickboxing, similar to her brother.

Like “Poatan,” Aline Pereira has appeared for GLORY kickboxing, while also going 3-0 under the Karate Combat banner.

By just 16-years old, Smilla Sundell was the number one ranked women’s featherweight Mauy Thai fighter in the world, per WBC MuayThai. The following year, she became the youngest title holder in ONE Championship history, winning strawweight Muay Thai gold at just 17. Ahead of her second title defense in May of 2024, Sundell was stripped of her title for missing weight (but won the bout regardless).

Her Muay Thai record stands at 36-5-1.

The age gap will likely be the talk of the fight: while Pereira is 35, Sundell is still just 21-years old.

The post Aline Pereira Draws Smilla Sundell on DWCS Next Month appeared first on Cageside Press.

Bella Mir’s loss to Alex Apodaca may turn out to be the biggest storyline of the season, but there’s still plenty of fights to come as part of Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10. Week 4 featured Patrick Rivera, a Shogun fighters welterweight, taking on Ireland’s Adam Darby, who had spent the entirety of his career with Cage Warriors. That clash promised to be one of several exciting match-ups, with lightweights, heavyweights, and middleweights also in action.

Tuesday’s returning fighters with Adam Livingston and Brandon Holmes, with Livingston kicking off the card opposite Hunter Smith at lightweight.

Where to Watch Dana White’s Contender Series

Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10, Week 4 Results

Welterweight: Adam Darby def. Patrick Rivera by TKO (doctor’s stoppage), Round 3, 2:42
Middleweight: Modestino Rodrigues def. Brandon Holmes by TKO (punches), Round 1, 0:15
Lightweight: Silvestre Sanchez def. Liam McCracken by KO (left hook), Round 3, 2:44
Heavyweight: Gabriel Lorenco def. Charlie Cleveland by KO (punches), Round 1, 2:02
Lightweight: Adam Livingston def. Hunter Smith by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Contract Winners: Adam Livingston, Gabriel Lorenco, Silvestre Sanchez, Modestino Rodrigues, Adam Darby

The post Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10, Week 4 Results appeared first on Cageside Press.

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.

Brandon Holmes (6-1 MMA)

Age: 29 years old

Height: 6’2″ / Reach: 74″

Weight Class: Middleweight (185lbs.)

First DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2025 (Week 2)

Old DW’s Contender Series Opponent: Cam Rowston (15-3 MMA)

Second DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2026 (Week 4)

New Opponent: Modestino Rodrigues (7-1 MMA)

First Contender Series Fight

Brandon Holmes had at least a four-fight amateur MMA career, including a title victory over a 3-1 fighter.

Holmes turned pro in 2023 and went 3-0 in the smaller promotions. With two finishes and a unanimous decision under his belt, Holmes took on a then 6-5, Zack Borrego on Fury FC 104 in May of 2024. Brandon delivered a finish with just two seconds to go in the fight. And even though Brandon had another fight booked on Fury FC the UFC called the middleweight up.

Brandon’s first Contender Series appearance was over pretty much as fast as it began. Brandon’s opponent immediately hurt him with a right hand then swarmed him with a barrage of well-placed strikes. When the dust settled Holmes had suffered the first loss of his pro career just over half a round.

First Contender Series Opponent

Cam Rowston, Brandon’s opponent, earned a contract as a result of his first-round finish. Rowston was actually a fighter looking redemption on the Contender Series from the 2024 season, so the signing wasn’t surprising.

The City Kickboxing fighter made his UFC debut a month and a week later as he fought a then 13-4 Andre Petroski. Rowston made quick work of Petroski, who was 8-3 with the promotion, stopping him midway through the first round.

Rowston appeared four months later at the end of January on the undercard of UFC 325. Cam took on the hyper-active Cody Brundage who was 6-6-1, 1 NC with the promotion heading into that bout. Cam stopped Brundage late in the second round with punches from back mount.

In Rowston’s most recent fight, he fought 18-6, Robert Bryczek to a unanimous decision victory. Bryczek entered that fight with a 1-1 promotional record, including a stoppage-victory over vet Brad Tavares.

Rowston is again scheduled to compete on a Volk card, this time on the prelims of UFC 333 in late October. Cam has drawn a ranked opponent this time as well, as he takes on the #14 ranked Abus Magomedov.

Cam has been putting in work in the middleweight division, and is super active, meaning this loss couldn’t have aged any better for Brandon at this exact moment.

The Road Back

Brandon has had one fight scheduled and competed one time since his first appearance on the Contender Series.

Rowston took on a 4-0 Preston LaGrange on the main card of Fury 112 back in January. Cam smoked his opponent, violently slamming him and stopping him with ground n’ pound punches midway through the first round. That performance in combination with all that his first Contender Series opponent has been doing since last year makes him a pretty easy fighter to bring back, especially within the middleweight division.

Gameplan/New Opponent

For his second appearance on the Contender Series, Brandon will be taking on Modestino Rodrigues. This isn’t Modestino’s second time being here, but he is more experienced in professional MMA than Brandon. Modestino is also a veteran of the K-1 Kickboxing Grand Prix 2025.

Rodrigues is very dangerous and gets the job done in a hurry more often times than not. His one loss was to a an 0-2 fighter that stopped him in one minute. His best win was against a 4-0 Virgilio Ailton in his most recent pro MMA fight (June 2025). Looks like Modestino is mostly blowing guys up in the first round, with his latest fight being 69 seconds into the second round. Fans should expect a true edge of your seat middleweight fight. And the winner is absolutely getting a contract.

The post Redemption: Second Chances on Dana White’s Contender Series — Brandon Holmes appeared first on Cageside Press.

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.

Adam “Bomb” Livingston (7-1 MMA)

Age: 25 years old

Height: 6’2″ / Reach: 73.5″

Weight Class: Lightweight (155lbs.)

First DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2025 (Week 6)

Old DW’s Contender Series Opponent: Tommy Gantt (12-0 MMA)

Second DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2026 (Week 4)

New Opponent: Hunter Smith (8-1 MMA)

First Contender Series Fight

Adam Livingston had a seven-fight amateur combat sports career beginning in early 2020. He was a multiple time champion and went 6-2 as an ammy in MMA. When Adam went pro in 2022, he continued fighting under the Flex Fights promotion.  Submitting his then 0-11, opponent in the first. Livingston would appear couple more times under the New York based regional promotion. One of those fights would include him beating a 1-0 fighter for the vacant Lightweight Flex Fights strap. But Livingston would also fight in larger regional promotions like CFFC and LFA.

After defeating via finish a then 8-4 Hugo Oyarzun, who had cage time against future UFC-level competition, Livingston got the call.

In Livingston’s first Contender Series appearance he was never able to really get anything going against his opponent. Adam was completely overwhelmed by the wrestling of his opponent and committed multiple fence grabs. Just midway through the round, Adam got caught in a guillotine and was submitted.

First Contender Series Opponent

Adam’s first opponent on the Contender Series, Tommy Gantt, received a UFC contract for his round one victory. Gantt also improved to 8-0.

The NC State University alum would not make his promotional debut till May when he was supposed to take on an 18-7 Trey Ogden, who is 3-3, 1 NC with the UFC. But Ogden withdrew due to injury.

Instead, Tommy fought 7-0 Fury FC regional product Artur Minev in what was also his UFC debut. Tommy smothered Artur with more chain wrestling and then he could handle, eventually getting the second-round TKO.

Gantt has been booked to fight 16-3-1 Drakkar Klose on the undercard of Noche UFC on September 12. Klose is close to being a 10-year vet of the UFC with a 10-3 promotional record. Obviously, UFC brass thinks highly of Gantt.

Makes sense for Livingston to get a second look as well.

The Road Back

Since his first appearance on the Contender Series Adam has had two booked fights and one cancellation.

Livingston was supposed to fight a 3-2 Quintezs Sapp (who also had at least eight amateur MMA fights under his belt). That fight was scheduled for back in February.

In May Livingston fought a 7-3 Kyle Pufahl on the main card of LFA 232. Livingston landed a highlight reel worthy spinning back elbow to get the victory towards the end of the second round.

That in combination with having faced a fighter like Gantt in his first appearance, and it’s an obvious fighter to bring back.

Gameplan/New Opponent

For his shot at redemption on the Contender Series, Livingston will take on Hunter Smith. Hunter had at least a six-fight amateur MMA career including winning a championship with the Gulf Coast promotion.

Most of Hunter’s fights were under the regional Louisiana based promotion, American Kombat Alliance (AKA). Smith’s one loss was to Elliot Hebert, who was 2-1 when he submitted Hunter in 2024. Smith’s most recent fight, back in March was the rematch the AKA championship. Hunter delivered with a first-round KO and birthed his appearance on the Contender Series.

Smith has only heard the final bell twice in his career. He’s got some vicious punches, so it’ll be a totally different, and probably more welcome, look this time around on the show.

The post Redemption: Second Chances on Dana White’s Contender Series — Adam Livingston appeared first on Cageside Press.

Now, one week on from the biggest upset in DWCS history (that would be Bella Mir losing to Alex Apodaca), the Contender Series is back with ten more UFC hopefuls looking to crack the roster.

Among them, welterweights Patrick Rivera and Adam Darby, who serve as the night’s featured fight. Know as “Yah’s Rebel,” Rivera went 10-1 under the Shogun Fights banner on the regional circuit and picked up a win in LFA as well. With a 13-4 record as a pro overall, he takes on Adam Darby, an Irish standout who has spent his entire professional career to this point with UK promotion Cage Warriors. There, Darby put together a 7-1 run, and has won six straight overall.

Weigh-ins for week four of Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10 took place on Monday, with the full card successfully making weight. Full results can be found below.

Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10, Week 4 Weigh-In Results

Welterweight: Patrick Rivera (170) vs Adam Darby (169.5)
Middleweight: Brandon Holmes (183.5) vs Modestino Rodrigues (185)
Lightweight: Liam McCracken (155.5) vs Silvestre Sanchez (154.5)
Heavyweight: Gabriel Lorenco (229.5) vs Charlie Cleveland (245.5)
Lightweight: Hunter Smith (154.5) vs Adam Livingston (155.5)

The post Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10, Week 4 Weigh-In Results appeared first on Cageside Press.

As far as a debut in the big show, “I don’t have any names,” Clancy (9-0) told media outlets including Cageside Press following the event. “Anybody. Anybody, anywhere, any time.”

Ahead of the fight, there was little in the way of heat. As Clancy noted backstage at the Meta Apex, Balletto was “being very respectful. Almost like overly respectful, I thought. And at the end of the day, it’s a fight. I didn’t want to give too much back. I’m coming to like, punch your face off. I’m not coming there to hug you and nicey-nicey.”

As Clancy put it, “although I’m a humble, nice guy, I’m coming to cut your face off. That’s my only real intentions towards you. I don’t want to be your friend, I don’t want to be your alley, I don’t want to be cordial.” Instead, Clancy is looking to do damage to his opponents.

“I want to do as much damage as I can do to you in that short window of time,” he exclaimed.

“Everybody’s different, you need to be prepared for anything. So I wasn’t expecting anything, I didn’t really read to much into it. Everything changes when you’re in the cage. I don’t read into these things too much.”

Watch the full Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10, Week 3 post-fight press conference with Sean Clancy Jr. above.

The post DWCS: Sean Clancy Jr Looking to Do Damage Inside the Cage appeared first on Cageside Press.

Expanding on that dream post-fight at the Meta Apex on Tuesday, Galanti (8-1) told media outlets including Cageside Press that “I visualized this for so long. And the fact that it’s actually happening, it’s crazy. When you really have a dream and pursue it, crazy things happen.”

In his UFC debut, whenever it might come, Galanti added that “I just want to prove that, I want to be the best. I want to continue to progress and be the best fighter I can be.”

“I’m very real with myself,” the New Jersey-based middleweight stated. “I want to keep evolving: get better at grappling, better at striking, and just become more dangerous everywhere.”

In terms of the division and where he sees himself, “everyone in the UFC is good obviously,” stated Galanti. “I’m not going to be the type to be like ‘oh I want a top 10 guy.’ You see people talking like that, and they get slept their next fight. So you just focus on one fight at a time, and continue to grow and progress and get better.”

Galanti previously said he walked away from a six-figure income to pursue fighting and make it to the UFC. That news was something of a shock, given the miniscule pay entry-level UFC fighters collect. Galanti expanded on the career switch after his win on Tuesday.

“I used to do concrete and cement in high rises in New York. I did that, and I had a landscaping business with my cousin,” he revealed. Galanti added that he had nothing against the working life, but it led to him being late to the gym, and sleeping as little as three hours a day at times. “Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing against that life it just wasn’t for me.”

Watch the full Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10, Week 3 post-fight press conference with Nick Galanti above.

The post DWCS: Nick Galanti Looking for Growth, Gives Backstory on Six-Figure Career He Left Behind appeared first on Cageside Press.

It was a standout performance in what has already been a solid season for the show, and for Humphrey, he’s now the second member of his family to earn a spot in a major promotion.

Father Ron “Abongo” Humphrey, who unfortunately passed away at age 41, had competed for Strikforce against the likes of Mike Kyle and Ovince St. Preux. He also worked as a stunt performer, appearing in Marvel’s Black Panther.

“I feel like I’m just now reaching the ability to beat him in a fight. If I could beat my dad in a fight, that would be dope, like in a playful way,” the younger Humphrey (5-0) told media outlets including Cageside Press on Tuesday. “But I feel like I’m just now reaching that level.”

While Humphrey has arrived in the UFC with Dana White singing his praises, “the UFC isn’t what matters to me,” he later noted. “What matters to me that I get to live my life fighting the best people in the world. So now that I’m here, man, I get to fight the best people in the world, and I’m just going to keep doing it until I can’t anymore.”

When asked where he wants to be in a year, given he had already put the welterweight division on notice, “I don’t know, man. I’m talking about beating everybody and all this good stuff, but just fighting, bro. Obviously I want to be a UFC champion. Obviously.”

That’s the goal, added Humphrey, “but the only way I’m going to get there is by fighting people. So where do I want to be in one year? Fighting better people. Keep testing myself, keep goin through the f*cking fire, keep seeing what I can do. Find some adversity, learn something about myself in the cage. Things like that is what excites me. That’s where I want to be. I want to grow, I want to learn, I want to go through this journey and become who the f*ck I gotta become in life.”

Watch the full Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10, Week 3 post-fight press conference with Ronald Humphrey above.

The post DWCS Winner Ronald Humphrey Looking to Learn Something About Himself in the Cage appeared first on Cageside Press.

Uriel (8-2) pulled off a standing guillotine choke against Mario Piazzon on week three of Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10, earning a finish in under a minute. The choke surprised many, including White himself, who didn’t expect it to work, only to later admit he’d been proven wrong.

Following the event, “Urso” (that’s Portuguese for “bear”) suggested he was ready to go again immediately.

“I’ll be ready. Tomorrow. All you have to do is make the call,” Uriel told media outlets including Cageside Press, speaking via translator. “In Brazil, we say, the 1-800 call. 1-800, call the bear, and I’ll be there.”

Uriel and Piazzon got into a bit of a scuffle at weigh-ins, and that’s something the heavyweight also addressed post-fight on Tuesday.

“I’m not that kind of athlete, to do the what do you call it, trash talk? Well I’m not that kind of guy,” stated Uriel. “We’re very automatic in our reactions. And when he came close to me, I just had that reaction. I even ended up touching him. It’s something that happened, and that’s not me.”

Luckily, it doesn’t appear there will be any consequences for the newly signed UFC athlete. “Nobody came to talk to me.”

Watch the full Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10, Week 3 post-fight press conference with Guilherme Uriel above.

The post Guilherme Uriel Ready for UFC Debut “Tomorrow.” appeared first on Cageside Press.

The daughter of UFC legend and former heavyweight champ Frank Mir started the night 4-0, and had already gained experience competing for UFC BJJ as well. In a rare change of heart, UFC CEO and President Dana White appears open to allowing Mir to compete in BJJ, the UFC, and Zuffa Boxing, with the latter being an opportunity he was reluctant to afford UFC fighters in the past.

Opposite Bella Mir was Alex Apodaca, who despite riding a three-fight win streak was opening as the largest female underdog in Contender Series history.

Where to Watch Dana White’s Contender Series

Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10, Week 3 Results

Women’s bantamweight: Alex Apodaca def. Bella Mir by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Heavyweight: Guilherme Uriel def. Mario Piazzon by submission (standing guillotine choke), Round 1, 0:50
Welterweight: Sean Clancy Jr. def. Gary Balletto by TKO, Round 2, 3:54
Welterweight: Ronald Humphrey def. Alexis Miranda by submission (rear-naked choke), Round 1, 4:03
Middleweight: Nick Galanti def. Carlos Petruzzella by knockout, Round 1, 0:35

Contract Winners: Nick Galanti, Ronald Humphrey, Sean Clancy Jr., Guilherme Uriel, Alex Apodaca

The post Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10, Week 3 Results appeared first on Cageside Press.