For those appearing on the week one card, there was a little less competition for that UFC contract. That’s after Damonte Robinson was scratched from the card, a development first reported by James Lynch.

Bad news. Per sources Cross vs. Robinson is OFF tomorrow nights #ContenderSeries card. Robinson wasnt cleared by doctors due to what I'm hearing was an eye issue. https://t.co/uNO5GjorqK

— James Lynch (@LynchOnSports) August 4, 2020

That left Kenny Cross without a dance partner, with no time to find a replacement. Hopefully, the show will find a way to get him back on soon. In the meantime, a four-fight card would kick off the season, featuring the following pairings:

Light Heavyweight: Ty Flores vs. Dustin Jacoby

Lightweight: Uros Medic vs. Mikey Gonzalez

Flyweight: Luis Rodriguez vs. Jerome Rivera

Lightweight: Jordan Leavitt vs. Luke Flores

We spoke to Ty Flores ahead of his featured fight, who told us that he expected to have a considerable weight advantage over Jacoby, who has previously competed for Bellator, come fight night. “I think I’m gonna get him on the ground and he is gonna feel that, and I’m gonna zap all his energy,” he added.

Be sure to check out our full breakdown of Dana White’s Contender Series 4 Week 1. Results from Tuesday’s event can be found below.

Kicking off the Contender Series Week 1 card was Jordan Leavitt, who put a career in law on hold to pursue his fighting career. After opponent Luke Flores opted to jump guard and work on a triangle, Leavitt landed a slam, controlled on the ground, and softened his opponent up with punches. Then came the arm-triangle choke, and a first round finish. A post-fight celebration including “the worm” helped make his case for a UFC deal.

The flyweight battle between Luis Rodriguez and Jerome Rivera was a very different affair. A heated one, at times. Three full rounds full of scrambles and submission attempts. While Rivera looked dangerous on the ground early, he soon struggled to land takedowns, and Rodriguez appeared to be the fresher fighter as the bout wore on. Very active, very competitive, very fun. Rivera wound up taking the win on the scorecards, which left some observers puzzled, but both fighters deserve credit for a hell of a show.

The third fight of the evening was a show-stopper. Uros Medic repeatedly drilled the body of Mikey Gonzalez with kicks. After crumpling Gonzalez with one kick to the liver, he had a near finish. Somehow, Gonzalez survived. He didn’t survive a second punishing kick to the body, and more follow-up strikes. Medic making a strong statement for a UFC deal.

The MVP of Tuesday’s Contender Series offering may have been Ty Flores’ chin. In reality, it’s what kept him in his fight against Dustin Jacoby. Unfortunately for Flores, it didn’t help him get the win, however. Jacoby, who fought in the UFC and Bellator in years gone by, was returning from a stint in kickboxing, and absolutely pieced Flores up through the first two rounds. Flores was bloodied, close to being finished, but somehow gutted it out. Still, there was no question to the winner — Jacoby.

In the end, Leavitt, Medic, and Jacoby earned UFC deals. UFC President Dana White, meanwhile, said he expected to see Jerome Rivera and Luis Rodriguez in the promotion some day as well — “just not today.”

Dana White’s Contender Series Season 4, Week 1 Results:

Dustin Jacoby def. Ty Flores by unanimous decision (30-26, 29-27, 29-27)
Uros Medic def. Mikey Gonzalez by TKO (body kick and punches), Round 1, 2:12
Jerome Rivera def. Luis Rodriguez by unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Jordan Leavitt def. Luke Flores by submission (arm-triangle choke), Round 1, 4:15

Contract Winners: Jordan Leavitt, Uros Medic, Dustin Jacoby

The post Dana White’s Contender Series Season 4, Week 1 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 amount 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.

Jose “Luke” Flores (9-1 MMA)

Age: 32 years old

Height: 6’1″

Weight Class: Lightweight (155lbs.)

First DW’s Contender Series Fight: August 29th, 2017 (Week 8)

Old DW’s Contender Series Opponent: Matt Frevola (8-1-1 MMA, 2-1-1 UFC)

Second DW’s Contender Series Fight:  August 4, 2020 (Week 1)

New DW’s Contender Series Opponent: Jordan Leavitt (6-0)

First DWCS Fight

Jose Flores took on Matt Frevola on Dana White’s Contender Series back in 2017. Flores was immediately dropped by Frevola in the first round of the bout. But Jose was able to hurt Frevola with rear legged body kicks as he is a southpaw and his opponent was an orthodox fighter. The kicks of Flores really stood out in the fight as almost all of them were landing and he was using them very successfully to manage distance. Jose showed ample experience on the ground, threatening multiple submissions off of his back as well as defending against submissions from his opponent and all the while constantly improving his position. The first round was very eventful but Frevola marginally had more impactful moments.

Flores was unable to defend most of the takedowns by Frevola, which ultimately proved to be his Achilles heel in the fight,  but was able to turn to his jiujitsu to continue to threaten his opponent on the ground. Frevola eventually trapped Jose Flores in a submission after a chaining together multiple submission attempts, with an exhausted Flores struggling to defend them. Flores was fatigued after spending so much time on defense and wound up caught in an arm-triangle choke, losing at 3:32 of the second round.

Contender Series Opponent

Jose’s opponent Matt Frevola was picked up by the UFC on that night and has had a good career with the promotion so far. Frevola has faced some quality opposition since being picked up, beginning with his first bout in the UFC and first pro loss to standout prospect Polo Reyes. Frevola received a hard-fought majority draw to Lando Vannata in his sophomore fight with the UFC on UFC 230.  Frevola also beat both Jalin Turner and Luis Pena in his two most recent bouts. So it’s safe to say that Jose Flores was up against some very good competition in his first Contender Series appearance, and someone who has already fared very well in adjusting into the UFC.

The Road Back

Since appearing on DW’s Contender Series in 2017 Jose Flores has beaten two fighters under the Combate Americas promotional banner. Somewhat important to mention that Flores didn’t fight for almost two years after his fight on the Contender series but has often taken time between his fights over the course of his career.  Jose Flores took out Eduardo Bustillos, who had a pro record of 5-4 at the time they fought, back in June of 2019. Flores was able to win the fight in the very first round after his opponent was forced to technically submit due to injury. Then, six months later, Flores fought Clarence Brown, who had a 1-3 pro record at the time. Flores was able to finish this fight by rear-naked choke in the very first round. Those two bouts were enough to get him another shot on the Contender Series.

Gameplan / New Opponent

Flores will be taking on Jordan Leavitt this Tuesday night. Unlike Jose’s first DWCS opponent Leavitt is a southpaw. This takes away one of Jose’s most heavily utilized weapons for his stand up — the rear legged body kicks. Though those were an effective method in hurting Flores’ previous Contender Series opponent, it is definitely possible that high kicks and leg kicks could be just as effective. At the very least, Flores’ kicks could be used to provide distance in order to prevent Leavitt from taking him down.

But Leavitt is also undefeated and has a similar number of professional fights as Jose’s first opponent on DWCS. Leavitt does a lot of his work on the ground and has three submission finishes in his professional career.  Jordan’s entire six-fight pro career has taken place in under three years as he has been extremely active, with most of his opponents having winning records but having little professional experience. For Jose’s second DWCS appearance it’s going to be of paramount importance that he controls where the fight happens by utilizing good takedown defense. If Jose can make sure the fight happens on the feet where he can utilize his kicks and strikes against a less experienced striker in Leavitt he has the best chance at winning.

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

Past editions of the show have produced talents like Sean O’Malley, Edmen Shahbazyan, Johnny Walker and more. Who’s going to break out this year? Good question. We’ve got your week one breakdown right here!

Lightweight: Kenny Cross vs. Damonte Robinson

Tale of the Tape

Pros and Cons

Who has the advantage?

Striking: Cross
Speed: Cross
Output/Volume: Cross
Knockout Power: Cross
Chin: Even
Kickboxing: Robinson
Footwork: Cross
Wrestling: Robinson
Grappling: Robinson
Submissions: Robinson
Cardio: Robinson

Prediction

Kevin Syler was originally scheduled against Cross for the first week of DWCS, but had to drop off the card. This is a super fun bout and a better fight than Cross/Syler. All three of Cross’s losses are by submission so that is a bit concerning. With Cross being so aggressive and pressing forward he could easily walk into a takedown. I’m just not fully sold on the wrestling ability of Robinson. Of the footage available I really like what Robinson brings to the table and I won’t be surprised if he gets the win. I favor Cross though because he’s shown a lot more in his career and the fact that Robinson is taking this fight on days’ notice. Skill for skill I think both have a lot to offer but Cross to me has more valuable weapons.

The post DWCS 2020 Week 1 Breakdown and Predictions appeared first on Cageside Press.

Flores may have not fought in over a year but the Team Elevation standout has been keeping his skillset sharp even through an unprecedented pandemic. We caught up with Flores recently, and he explained what training has been like for him. “It’s been great, when quarantine started we had a real small group so we’ve been getting more attention from the coaches which is good. There were some days when we would even have more coaches than we would have guys sparring so it was good to get all the feedback.  It started with just a couple of us and we would have a pretty solid big guy group. It was all heavyweights and light heavyweights. We made a lot of improvements getting one on one from the coaches.”

Outside of MMA, Ty loves to hunt and explained to us what he has been doing outside of his MMA training. “I am a pretty big hunter so I have been getting ready for this season. I got Elk in September, I wanna try Bear as well, go back home and get some deer and of course I’m a big boar hunter as well. I’ve just been reading books on that, reading maps, practicing my tracking and going up the mountains and staying active with that. But when it gets closer to the fight I don’t really feel like camping it’s a lot of energy”. 

The Team Elevation fighter is on a five-fight winning streak and is more then ready to put on a show at the UFC Apex. Flores feels very confident in his skillset and expects to be the better fighter wherever this match-up with Jacoby goes. “He is a kick boxer and I am more of a wrestler. I think the difference is he knows I want to take him down and I know he wants to knock me out. I know he’s not gonna take me down, that would be really dumb. But I’m also not scared to strike with either, I’ve fought tough strikers and I train with Alistair [Overeem], Curtis [Blaydes] and those guys hit so hard. I am not worried to strike with him either and we are gonna fight at my pace. I am going to dictate that, he is always going to have to be worried about the takedown.”

Flores continued, explaining why he believes a finish may be in order come fight night. “I am in such good shape right now that I think I could wrestle him for 5 straight rounds if I need to, and strike with him too. I am going to be closer to 230 on fight night and I think he walks around closer to 205 and I’m gonna put my weight on him. I have some brutal ground and pound. The last guy I fought I broke his jaw after two or three hits. I think I’m gonna get him on the ground and he is gonna feel that, and I’m gonna zap all his energy.”

Be sure to tune in to watch Ty Flores make his Contender Series debut on August 4, live on ESPN+.

The post DWCS: Ty Flores Expects to Mentally and Physically Break Jacoby appeared first on Cageside Press.