Victor Reyna returns in the featured fight, after to losing to Miguel Baeza on the show last year. He’s had one fight in between, and is already one step ahead of last year’s performance. That’s after making weight successfully Monday. In 2019, he missed the welterweight mark by a rather wide margin.

Heavyweight Josh Parisian is back as well. He appeared on the show in 2018, and while he didn’t get a contract, he did win — which earned him a spot on The Ultimate Fighter. Eliminated in his first fight, he returned to the regional scene and has run up five straight wins, all by TKO, ahead of his return to DWCS.

In an interesting booking, brothers Louis and Orion Cosce both grace the card, with Louis fighting Victor Reyna in the featured fight, and Orion facing a solid prospect in Matt Dixon.

A couple of promising strawweight prospects also face off when Cheyanne Buys meets Hilarie Rose. And Kenny Cross finally gets to fight, after his week one bout fell through.

Tune in come fight time (8PM ET) for full results from tonight’s episode of Dana White’s Contender Series.

The card opener on Tuesday between lightweights Kenny Cross and Kevin Syler went the distance. Cross came on strong early, having a clear edge on the feet. He’d finish the round with some heavy ground n’ pound. In round two, Cross had his opponent on the mat and seemed to be seconds from a finish. But Syler was able to reverse, and hunted for a heel hook. In the third, Cross appeared to be tiring, and Syler went after a kimura. He got a late takedown, but there was no question it was Cross earning the win on the scorecards. You’ll never see a more dejected winner, however, as Cross was not happy going to the judges.

In the night’s heavyweight bout, Chad Johnson opened with a leg kick, and was clearly the smaller, quicker fighter. Josh Parisian, however, proved nimble for a man his size with a high kick. While Johnson would go on the offensive and get some good strikes in, Parisian fired back. He caught Johnson with a knee in the clinch, knocked him down with a punch, briefly looked for a submission, then transitioned to mount and finished with ground n’ pound. Great heavyweight fight, and the sixth straight TKO for Josh Parisian.

Orion Cosce’s match-up with Matt Dixon saw the latter winning the grappling battle early for a big takedown. It was the first of tree takesdowns for Dixon in the round. But while he won that battle, he didn’t win the war. Heading into the third, each fighter had likely won a round. With the fight up in the air after two, it was Orion Cosce going out and giving it his all in the final frame. He managed to get Dixon in a crucifix late, and earned the TKO win with less than twenty seconds left in the round.

Cheyanne Buys had a solid first round to open the only women’s fight on this week’s Contender Series card — but Hilarie Rose finished with an arm-bar attempt, only to be slammed down. The second started hot as well, with both fighters attacking. Rose would end up cut open off a short elbow, while Buys appeared to have the strength advantage, winning the clinch battles. The third was another hotly contested round with Buys coming on strong and hurting Rose late. Buys opted to go to the ground and look for a submission, however, allowing Rose to recover, not that it would matter in the long run. A solid unanimous decision for Buys.

Louis Cosce wasted no time in getting an emphatic win in the featured fight of the Contender Series this week. He scored a knockdown with a left and unloaded with ground n’ pound. That was all she wrote.

Dana White’s Contender Series Season 4, Week 3 Results

Louis Cosce def. Victor Reyna by TKO, 1:12
Cheyanne Buys def. Hilarie Rose by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Orion Cosce def. Matt Dixon by TKO, Round 3, 4:42
Josh Parisian def. Chad Johnson by TKO, Round 1, 3:43
Kenny Cross def. Kevin Syler by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

Contracts: Josh Parisian, Orion Cosce, Cheyanne Buys, Louis Cosce

The post Dana White’s Contender Series Season 4, Week 3 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.

Victor “Kelevra” Reyna (11-4 MMA)

Age: 34 years old

Height: 5’11″

Weight Class: Welterweight (170lbs)

First DW’s Contender Series Fight: June 25th, 2019 (Week 2)

Old DW’s Contender Series Opponent: Miguel “Caramel Thunder” Baeza (9-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC)

Second DW’s Contender Series Fight:  August 18, 2020 (Week 3)

New DW’s Contender Series Opponent: Louis Cosce (6-0 MMA)

First DWCS Fight

Victor Reyna lost his first Contender Series fight last year by unanimous decision to then 6-0 Miguel Baeza. But before the bout even started Reyna had already essentially taken himself out of contention for the UFC contract thanks to missing weight. Victor weighed in 7lbs over the welterweight non-title limit at 178lbs, the day prior to his bout.

During the fight, a big moment in the first round saw Miguel drop Victor with a straight right hand. Reyna spent the rest of the round trying to gain an advantageous position after that punch put him in a tight spot. In the second Reyna was able to drop his opponent with a high kick and left hand but his Baeza was back to his feet before more damage could be landed. Round two ws basically Reyna’s until he was clipped by a couple of knees at the end of the round that caused flash knockdowns.

The third round was a back-and-forth battle including submission attempts, but the night ultimately saw Baeza get the nod and the contract with the UFC at the end. It was a great fight and you got the sense that had Victor had no mishaps with the scale, he could have just as easily have earned a contract that night as well.

Contender Series Opponent

Victor Reyna faced the very tough, undefeated Miguel Baeza for his first Contender Series fight last year. Since the DWCS fight Baeza has fared well in the UFC with a 100% finish rate after two bouts. Baeza fought Hector Aldame in his first fight in the UFC, finishing him in the second round with a leg kick. After that fight, Miguel got a much bigger test in UFC veteran Matt Brown in May of this year. Renya, passed that test with flying colors as he TKO’d the vet in just two rounds. There is absolutely no question that Reyna faced UFC  caliber talent last year in his fight with Baeza on DWCS.

The Road Back

Since his fight at DWCS last year, Victor Reyna has had just one fight. Thankfully, Victor made weight for this fight, coming in well below the limit. It was actually Reyna’s opponent who came in quite a few pounds over forcing a catchweight bout.

This fight against Nick Gay was a grueling one, one that saw Reyna controlling the majority of the fight in the clinch up against the cage and on the ground. When standing, Reyna controlled the fight there as well, consistently winning all of the standup exchanges with his superior striking in order to get the better of his opponent. Reyna showed solid takedowns and amazing cardio as well in this win, back in November of 2019. Obviously it was enough to earn a trip back to the Contender Series.

Gameplan / New Opponent

For Victor Reyna’s second appearance on DWCS he will be facing another undefeated fighter in Louis Cosce. However, Cosce doesn’t have nearly the strength of schedule Reyna’s first opponent had, or even of Victor himself. The majority of Cosce’s opponents have had losing records and the combined record of all of his opponents is 34-61. Cosce is a quick starter that hits really hard so Reyna will have to be careful on the feet and use his experience to bring the fight to where he can dominate in the clinch or on the ground.

One of the most important things for Reyna is just making weight at welterweight cleanly and putting on a good performance. He did that Monday. Now, if Victor can find a way to put it all together, especially after his good first appearance on the show, he should end Tuesday night with a UFC contract.

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

Kenny Cross finally gets a chance to compete as well, after his fight fell through in week one.

Let’s get right to it and break all five fights down.

Welterweight: Victor Reyna vs. Louis Cosce

Tale of the Tape

Pros and Cons

Who has the advantage?

Striking: Cosce
Speed: Cosce
Output/Volume: Cosce
Knockout Power: Cosce
Chin: Cosce
Kickboxing: Reyna
Footwork: Neither
Wrestling: Reyna
Grappling: Reyna
Submissions: Cosce
Cardio: Reyna

Prediction

Cosce does have a lot of advantages on paper, that’s shown in all his bouts being one-round fights. The longest Cocse has been in the cage is 4:34 and Reyna has gone the distance five times. However Reyna has a big experience advantage and has fought far better competition. Reyna has ten more fights than Cosce and Reyna has fought opponents like Miguel Baeza, Daniel Rodriguez, and Kevin Holland whereas Cosce has only one win over a fighter with a winning record. Cosce is extremely dangerous but with the amount of pressure he puts on early it’s going to be hard for him to keep that pace up for long. Reyna can take a shot for sure, having been dropped a few times by Miguel Baeza and surviving. The pick Reyna because there is still a lot unknown about Cosce.

The post DWCS 2020 Week 3 Breakdown and Predictions appeared first on Cageside Press.

Ahead of the fight, Rose explained that she has known about this Contender Series opportunity for quite some time now.“I have actually known since end of February or early March, so I have known for a really long time and I’ve had to keep it in and not share. There were some people who knew and some who didn’t so when I could officially share and announce it was really exciting and I was anticipating that day.”

Rose is on a four fight win streak since being finished in her professional debut in 2018. She trains at a couple of different gyms including USMMA, Lauzon’s MMA and Skill of Strength. The New England based fighter describes the change in her game and how she has been able to turn the corner as a mixed martial artist. “Losing that pro debut really set a fire under my ass and my goal is to make it to the UFC and eventually become a champion and be in the top 10. I think losing really lit that fire and I was dedicated and wanted to absorb and learn,” she said. “I am also a coach of young kids and being able to mentor them and show them that loss is okay and you can come back and be strong was a big thing to so I had all of them pushing me to come back and be better.”

Hilarie Rose shed some light on what her training has been like during the pandemic. Thankfully she has been able to stay active and take everything in stride. “Lucky for me I have been training at USMMA since I was 14 years old so I’ve grown up there I’ve had the same coaches from the very start,” she explained. “There’s apartments there so I live there and I’m an instructor there so I’ve had that advantage of being able to use the gym and have a small group of people that would come in, and like I said, I thought I was fighting in July so I’ve already been training hard core in small groups.”

Now, Rose will focus on the last two weeks before the most important fight of her career thus far. She’s expecting a game opponent, but a win is all that’s on her mind.

“I think that I’m definitely more fast twitch. She is very tough. She’s not afraid to throw, she knows she is gonna go in there and get hit and hit me. I am expecting that if it ends up on the ground that my grappling is going to be much better then hers.” Rose went on to predict a submission win come fight night. “I think I could definitely get a submission victory and that’s what others seem to think too. I envision my fights all the time and I can’t seem to envision how this fight is going to go but I can envision my hand being raised.”

Watch our full interview with Hilarie Rose below! Rose debuts on Dana White’s Contender Series on August 18 at the UFC Apex.

The post DWCS: Hilarie Rose on Why She Wins Contender Series Bout Against Buys appeared first on Cageside Press.