Las Vegas, NV — What he lacks in experience, Contender Series 2019 Week 5 winner Jamahal Hill makes up for in determination. That much was clear on Tuesday, as Hill earned a second-round TKO of Alexander Poppeck. Despite Dana White bemoaning Hill’s youth in the sport, the UFC President awarded him a contract.

While only a pro since 2017, “I’ve been working for this so long,” Hill told reporters including Cageside Press post-fight at the UFC Apex. “Trying to be ready. Everyday just grinding in the gym, thinking, dreaming, hoping. Now that it’s here, I’m just ready for what’s next.”

Reflecting on the fight, Hill said that “I’m very critical of myself, so I always feel like there’s room to improve. Things I can do better. I’m probably my biggest critic.”

“It kind of went how I expected. Just go in, feel him out a little bit in the first,” Hill continued. “Then start to get going. I knew that once I started finding my rhythm, and started finding my pace, he wouldn’t be able to keep up with my pace. He just began to fade, and I just keep throwing.”

Asked for his thoughts during the bout, Hill said that “I’m going to be honest, when I was in there, I was just thinking about the fight. I was locked in. I forgot that Dana was cageside, I forgot that I was on the Contender Series. All I’m thinking was doing work, and treating it like another day at the gym.”

Now he’s in the UFC, and there will be no slow build, White said earlier Tuesday. The question of Hill’s experience is understandable, something even he acknowledged. “I did start my pro career late,” Hill admitted, “but I’ve been fighting since 2010. So I’ve been at this for a long time. I’ve been with my guys, I’ve had my setbacks and things like that. But I feel like I’ve been ready for this. We’ll see. Throw me in the water, see if I can swim.”

That very well may be what happens, given the state of the light heavyweight division. Although Hill, who has fought at heavyweight in the past, hinted at a weight change. “We’ve been talking possibly 185. So we’ll probably try to check into that. Right now, whatever, he gives me a fight at 205, I’m ready to go. I ain’t worried. I’m one of those fight whoever, whenever type of dudes. I’m not intimidated, I’m not scared of nobody.”

As for when he’d like to make his UFC debut, Jamahal Hill answered “as soon as they can put me on a card, I’m there, I’m ready.”

“I feel like people need to know who I am,” he added. “Also in doing so, I’ll know who I am.” Ready to test himself, in other words.

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Las Vegas, NV — The knee heard round the UFC Apex, perhaps? Sean Woodson got the most spectacular finish on Dana White’s Contender Series this week, a flying knee that left no question about whether he’d be getting a UFC deal.

Speaking to reporters including Cageside Press after the event, Woodson was still in shock. “I haven’t had a chance to process it. I feel like I’m in a dream, literally. It doesn’t seem real. Just a week ago, I was playing Xbox in my room, not even thinking this was anywhere near a possibility right now.” Now, he’s a UFC fighter, something he always believed possible. It’s just the timing that threw him. “I’ve always known I was going to be in the UFC, but I just didn’t think it would’ve been this soon.”

When the call came, it gave him all of five days to prepare for the fight. “There really wasn’t much of a discussion,” he said of the opportunity presenting itself. “I hit up my team and I said ‘this is it, we’ve got this opportunity,’ and I told them where my weight was at. I honestly didn’t even think I was going to make weight. I just knew I was going to give it my all, do my best, and I just made it happen.”

He did just that, after a grueling weight cut. “I was 170 when I got this call. I weighed in at 146. So I cut 24 pounds in five days. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I’ll never do that again. I’m going to stay at featherweight, but I’ll never make featherweight short notice again.” A proper amount of time, “no problem,” Woodson added, “but just five days, nearly killed me.”

Improving his record to 6-0 with the finish of Terrance McKinney, Woodson is ready for his debut. Just not on short notice. “I’m ready whenever, as long as it ain’t five days notice. I’ll fight anybody, doesn’t matter who the f*ck it is.”

While the finish was all flash, the early part of the fight saw Woodson in some tough spots. That included having his opponent on his back. Yet while it looked bad, Woodson told reporters that “I’m in that position all the time. I’m comfortable in bad positions. I come into the training room some days, and the entire two, three hour session is nothing but putting me in bad positions, and me working out of them.” His approach to training is that “I know where my strengths are and I don’t neglect them, I make sure they’re sharp, but I’m focused on my weaknesses more than anything.”

He was also focused on making an impression Tuesday. “Knowing how Dana White expects these fights to go on the Contender Series, I knew that I was going to be flying knees, spinning stuff, I was going to go for it,” he said. “I was going to really put it all on the line tonight.” That gamble paid off, clearly.

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Las Vegas, NV — Welcome to the UFC, Billy Quarantillo. The featherweight who trains with Matt Frevola and others under Serra-Longo earned a UFC Contract on Week 5 of the Contender Series Tuesday night.

It wasn’t a win that came easy. Quarantillo found himself taken down early. Fighting through adversity. That’s something Dana White touched on in his own post-fight comments. Quarantillo explained to reporters including Cageside Press post-fight, however, that “I knew as long as I didn’t give up the big play, and I had a chance to escape, I knew I was going to be able to come back and win. So I just tried to stay relaxed, just weather the storm. Luckily it worked out, I was able to get out of that position, and get on to the next round.”

The sluggish start is nothing new for him, mind you. “I don’t know what it is, I’m usually a slow starter. I don’t know how I can fix that and start a little quicker, but its worked out for me. It makes the fight a little more exciting. Obviously we’ll come back and get the win.”

Whether that trend continues in the UFC remains to be seen. It’s not usually a recipe for success, but even veterans like Cowboy Cerrone have been prone to slow starts at times.

With Billy Quarantillo being the first fight of the night at the Contender Series this week, he had a bit of a wait to find out whether he’d earned a UFC contract. “I’ve been watching the Contender Series now for, this is my third year. You never know what [Dana White is] looking for. I imagined having a bloody finish, and that’s what happened, and that’s what I was hoping he was looking for.,” Quarantillo said. “So I felt pretty good about it, but you just never know. I would have been happy either way, but obviously I’m a lot more happy with the contract.”

Now that he’s earned his way into the big show, his debut will no doubt come relatively soon. Asked when he’d like to appear, Quarantillo answered “My boy, Matt Frevola, I would definitely love to be on the same card as him. I was looking at that UFC Boston, or New York later in the year.” The Boston card has been the reported landing point for Chris Weidman as well. “But we’ll see, I’m going to enjoy the next couple of days, and start planning from there. Whatever they give me, I”m ready to fight, and I’m ready to prove that I belong here.”

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Las Vegas, NV — While it had some strange moments, including a bad call from the judges in one fight and a bizarre game plan by another fighter, week five of this year’s Contender Series was a success. “It was a good night. It was good fights.” That was UFC President Dana White’s summary of Tuesday’s action, which went down at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

White made the comments while speaking to reporters including Cageside Press following the event.

Three contracts were awarded, ultimately. Featherweight Bill Quarantillo was one winner, after a third-round TKO. It was a fight that saw Quarantillo overcome some early adversity. “I love to see it, I love to see different things. I love guys that — that kid put on a clinic on him in the first round,” White observed. “You go back to your corner, compose yourself, you come back out and you fix the things you did wrong in the first round and you win the fight. It’s incredible. I love it when people do that.”

Light Heavyweight Jamahal Hill won over the boss as his fight progressed. “The first round I was like ‘eh, this kid’s too young, he needs a little bit more experience.’ But his opponent was tough, durable, moving forward trying to win. Hit hard. And you saw the guy take some big body shots and shrug them off.” And so White wound up reconsidering, given the toughness of Hill’s opponent. “He was a tough guy he fought, and the way that that kid came out in the second round and went after him, I was like, ‘I might be wrong.’ You have to watch the whole fight instead of judging the guy on the first round.” Hill earned a TKO late in the second. He also earned a UFC deal.

He won’t be brought along slowly, however, young or not. “When you’re here, it’s all killers, man. It’s literally all killers,” said White.

Of course, there was no question that Sean Woodson was going to get a UFC deal, after a flying knee finish of Terrance McKinney. “That’s the second crazy flying knee we’ve seen in a week and a half, two weeks” White exclaimed. “There’s no secret. He knows he’s got to go home and work on his ground game some, but his takedown defense was good, and the kid that he fought is an absolute stud.” White, however, had issues with McKinney’s game plan, stud or not. He spent too much time on the back, without trying to move to mount, or anywhere else. White called it a “weird” performance from McKinney.

But thanks to the flying knee, it’s all a moot point. “Short notice, the way he fought, when the opportunity was there, he took it. And he landed the second most beautiful flying knee we’ve seen in a long time.”

😱😱😱😱😱@SeanWoodsonMMA with a jump knee to the head!!!! #DWCS pic.twitter.com/aSv0i7xNtL

— UFC (@ufc) July 24, 2019

Then there was Ramazan Kuramagomedov vs. Jordan Williams. While it ended in a split decision for Kuramagomedov, many including White scored it for Williams. But while White felt Williams won, “I can’t give it off a loss.” Ergo, no contract for Williams on Tuesday.

“The judges blew that one. I don’t know. It was close, but if you look at power punches, damage done — he had him hurt in the first and the third,” explained White. “Now, where he messed up was, as soon as he would get him hurt, he’s shooting on him. He had him hurt bad, why are you shooting on him?”

“Keep it standing. Keep throwing punches. Little mistakes that he made, that he’ll learn from, and that he needs to fix,” White continued. “He could have finished that fight in the first, he could have finished that fight in the third. He made little mistakes.”

The real heart-breaking news for Jordan Williams, however, is that White later added that “I would have taken him. I would have taken him if the judges had scored it right.”

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Las Vegas, NV — Dana White’s Contender Series alumni Matt Frevola was back in Las Vegas on Tuesday, once again on the set of the show. Only this time, Frevola (7-1-1) wasn’t fighting. Instead, he there supporting a teammate, as well as checking out the recently opened UFC Apex for the first time.

The Apex is a true fight venue, unlike the old TUF Gym, which was, well, a gym. But like the show’s previous digs, there’s no walkout music at the Apex. “I honestly like that. I like the intimate viewing that’s here,” Frevola told Cageside Press prior to Tuesday’s card. “Take out the music, it’s just raw fighting. I think that’s what Dana’s looking for. He’s just trying to take all the bullsh*t aside, and look at these fighters fight. So I think it’s perfect.”

The fighters are certainly under the microscope on the show, doing their best to earn UFC deals. “Steamrolla” knows the feeling well. After all, it’s how he made his way into the promotion. “I love that intimate feel of the fight,” said Frevola, who was excited to see things from the other side. ‘I fought two years ago for the Contender Series. It would be cool to spectate it now, and see that experience.”

Frevola was in the house to support Billy Quarantillo, and the good news is, Quarantillo not only won, but got the finish on Tuesday. Frevola, who trains with Serra-Longo, has a couple more pals with Contender Series fights coming up.

His own career is also rolling along as well. Earning a UFC deal “almost solidified all my training throughout college. Grinding, fighting in parking lots as an amateur, coming up on the circuit,” he told us Tuesday. Now that he’s where he always wanted to be, “it’s making a name for myself in that organization. My first three fights, the first one didn’t go very well, it was a huge learning experience. My second fight I got better, I learned from that first fight. In the second fight, I had that draw with Lando [Vannata], which was an awesome fight. And the fight after that I finally went out there and got my first win in the octagon. I’m constantly improving, constantly growing, and I got another four fight deal with the UFC. So now I’m continuing the evolution of the “Steamrolla” for the next fight.”

That four fight deal means we should be seeing Frevola back in the not-too-distant future. Right now, he’s targeting October. “I’ve been training, I’m feeling good. I’m hoping to get — Ideally i’d love to go to Australia, that would be a dream come true. But Boston would be awesome, I love the East Coast, Boston’s a great city.”

Plus, it was recently announced that one of Frevola’s teammates and mentors, Chris Weidman, would move to light heavyweight and take on Dominick Reyes on the UFC Boston card. “We were talking, it would be cool to get on that Boston card with Weidman, get the whole team out there too.”

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With the Contender Series back in action Tuesday, it was time to see who would punch their ticket to a UFC contract. Week 5 of the show was set to focus on the featherweights, with two 145lb bouts scheduled. One was the featured fight of the event, which pitted Terrance McKinney against Sean Woodson.

Woodson is a 5-0 prospect out of St. Louis, while Terrance McKinney is another promising fighter from the Pacific North West, training with Sikjitsu. That gym plays home to Julianna  Lima, Austin Arnett, and Michael Chiesa, so McKinney is in good company.

The action gets underway at 8PM ET, airing on ESPN+ and UFC Fight Pass, depending on your region. For our breakdown of Dana White’s Contender Series Season 3 Week 5, check out our full breakdown and predictions. Stay tuned for full coverage from Las Vegas, including post-fight reaction from the contract winners Tuesday night!

Dana White’s Contender Series Season 3 Week 5 Results

Ramazan Kuramagomedov def. Jordan Williams via Split Decision at the end of Three Rounds (27-30, 29-28, 29-28)

Sean Woodson def. Terrance McKinney via KO at 1:49 of Round Two

JJ Okanovich def. Christian Lohsen via Unanimous Decision at the end of Three Rounds (30-27 x 3)

Jamahal Hill def. Alexander Poppeck via TKO at 4:29 in Round Two

Billy Quarantillo def. Kamuela Kirk via TKO at 0:22 in Round Three

CONTRACT WINNERS

Bill Quarantillo

Jamahal Hill

Sean Woodson

The post Dana White’s Contender Series Season 3 Week 5 Results appeared first on Cageside Press.

The fifth week of Contender Series Season 3 featured featherweights in the main event, as Terrance McKinney (7-1) looked to spoil the perfect record of Sean Woodson (5-0). Woodson was a Shamrock FC vet, with the only knock against him being his last three fights going to decision. Could he find a finish on Tuesday night? Another featherweight pairing was set to open the card, as Billy Quarantillo took on Kamuela Kirk. UFC fans might remember Quarantillo from the Ultimate Fighter — he was a member of Team Faber on Season 22 of the reality fighting series. Kirk, meanwhile, most recently earned a pair of finishes under the Legacy Fighting Alliance banner.

First up, of course, came the weigh-in Monday morning in Las Vegas, NV. Check below for full results as fighters hit the scales, and see who (if anyone) missed weight for week five on Dana White’s Contender Series.

Dana White’s Contender Series Season 3 Week 5 Weigh-in Results

Featherweight: Terrance McKinney (146) vs. Sean Woodson (146)
Middleweight: Ramazan Kuramagomedov (185.5) vs. Jordan Williams (185)
Lightweight: Christian Lohsen (155.5) vs. JJ Okanovich (155)
Light Heavyweight: Jamahal Hill (204.5) vs. Alexander Poppeck (204)
Featherweight: Billy Quarantillo (146) vs. Kamuela Kirk (145)

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