Those undefeated fighters were Nate Smith, taking on Jimmy Flick at flyweight, and Cody Brundage, who was facing the aforementioned developmental deal holder William Knight. Knight, since appearing on the show in 2019, had gone 2-1, with the lone loss coming to Tafon Nchukwi, who will appear on the series next week. Knight was certainly hoping that this will be the year he graduates to the UFC proper, while Brundage will look to keep his perfect record intact. Previously, the light heavyweight has fought for Light’s Out, where he is the promotion’s 205lb champion.

The short-notice replacement at this week’s edition of the Contender Series 2020 is Chase Gibson, who fills in for Victor Martinez against Tucker Lutz.

As always the Contender Series will air on ESPN+ (in the U.S.) and UFC Fight Pass, kicking off at 8PM ET. Tune in come fight time for updates and results from tonight’s festivities.

The opening card bout between Tucker Lutz and Chase Gibson went the distance, with Lutz thoroughly in control of a very technical bout. He’d take the 30-27 win on all three scorecards, but whether it was enough to secure a contract would remain to be seen. Lutz said following the fight that he wasn’t happy with his performance, likely with that in mind.

Developmental dear holder William Knight was seconds away from being finished by the undefeated Cody Brundage in the opening round of their light heavyweigt bout. Brundage had his back, and had Knight flattened out. However Knight trapped a wrist while Brundage was working him over, managed to escape back to his feet, and answered a takedown attempt with some nasty elbows. That spelled doom for Brundage, as he ate far too many of them.

At bantamweight, Ronnie Lawrence earned a one-sided decision in a fight that arguably could have had a 10-8 round. Lawrence had a number of takedowns on opponent Jose Johnson, whose takedown defense just wasn’t where it should have been.

Jimmy Flick showed superior grappling against Nate Smith, chasing multiple submission attempts all the way into the third round. Where he finally locked in an arm-triangle for the finish. And almost certainly a UFC contract.

In the featured fight of the night, meanwhile, Melsik Baghdasaryan was dominant early against Dennis Buzukja. As the fight wore on, Buzukja mounted a bit of a comeback, but it wasn’t enough, with Baghdasaryan taking home a unanimous decision.

Dana White’s Contender Series Season 4, Week 5 Results

Featherweight: Melsik Baghdasaryan def. Dennis Buzukja by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Flyweight: Jimmy Flick def. Nate Smith by submission (arm-triangle choke), Round 3, 3:15
Bantamweight: Ronnie Lawrence def. Jose Johnson by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Light heavyweight: William Knight def. Cody Brundage by TKO, Round 1, 2:23
Lightweight: Tucker Lutz def. Chase Gibson by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

Contract Winners: William Knight, Ronnie Lawrence, Jimmy Flick

Nate Smith, Tucker Lutz, and Melsik Baghdasaryan have been invited back for second Contender Series fights in November.

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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.

William “Knightmare” Knight (7-1 MMA)

Age: 32 years old

Height: 5’10”

Weight Class: Light Heavyweight (205lbs)

First DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2019 (Week 8)

Old DW’s Contender Series Opponent: Herdem Alacabek (5-1 MMA)

Second DW’s Contender Series Fight:  2020 (Week 5)

New Opponent: Cody Brundage (5-0 MMA)

First DWCS Fight

In 2019 William Knight was one half of the main event for Week 8 of the Contender Series. Knight took on Herdem Alacabek in a fight that was back in forth at times but saw Alacabek controlling the majority of the fight.

Knight heavily relied on his physicality and low center of gravity in grappling exchanges. And Knight showed a lot of strength in the clinch but was highly susceptible to knees from his opponent, the taller man. The majority of this fight took place in the clinch or on the ground. Knight showed good takedown attempts and pressure against the cage but, looked a little uncomfortable in long-distance striking exchanges.

William also showed a good ability to survive on the ground and escape tough positions when his opponent was able to take him down. Knight has an excellent scrambling ability for such a physically large and muscular bound man.

Great heart and cardio were shown from Knight in order to compete and put pressure on his opponent for the entirety of the fight until he finally got his opponent to crumble. Knight finished his opponent Herdem Alacabek in the third round of their bout via ground and pound after a jumping knee.

Though William Knight got the finish over his opponent and showed all the great attributes you’d want to see in a UFC fighter, it was pretty obvious that he was a bit inexperienced.  Knight had only been training for 15 months at the time of his Contender Series fight.

Dana White ultimately put Knight into the developmental program to avoid burning out a fighter that was so ‘green’ at the time.

Contender Series Opponent 

William Knight’s first Contender Series opponent in 2019 was then 5-0 fighter Herdem Alacabek. Herdem has not fought since his loss to Knight last year but the combined record of all of his professional opponents was 10-6 at the time of the DWCS fight.

Herdem was also significantly taller than his opponent (6’2″ compared to 5’10”) as well as having a longer reach- 75″ compared to 73″. Alacabek looked slightly more technically sound and experienced than Knight which is what made his win all the more impressive.

The Road Back 

Since fighting on DWCS last year, Knight has competed in 3 professional mixed martial arts bouts.

Knight took on 9-5, Jamelle Jones just two months after his Contender Series fight. This fight was held in the heavyweight division, but Knight weighed in at just 218lbs. After almost a full first round, Knight finished Jones with strikes to get the win.

Next Knight took on the 2-0, Tafon Nchukwi in a catchweight bout at 225lbs. Knight was finished in the first round of the bout. It’s worth noting that Nchukwi has finished all of his amateur and professional opponents and is actually getting a shot on the Contender Series himself next week (Week 6).

In late January, earlier this year, Knight fought the 12-9-1, Rocky Edwards. Edwards has a lot of experience and has fought UFC caliber talent before, being 37 years old. Knight was able to get the finish, midway through the final round.

Gameplan/ New Opponent  

When Knight fights on DWCS, the fans and Dana will truly get an opportunity at seeing just how much this fighter has progressed and learned in the past year. Knight looked very ‘green’ in his first appearance on the Contender Series, but understandably so because it was just 15 months into his MMA career. Fans could expect to see a much more technically sound fighter out of Knight as with that little time in the sport, he can’t help but get better with more training, and potentially at an exponential rate.

This time around, Knight will be taking on another 5-0 fighter, Cody Brundage, for his second trip to the Contender Series. Brundage stands at 6’1″. Brundage’s opponent’s combined records, going into their bouts with him were 29-33.

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Let’s get right to it.

Light heavyweight: William Knight vs. Cody Brundage

Tale of the Tape

Pros and Cons

Who has the advantage?

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

Prediction

This fight could look like the Knight/Alacabek fight in 2019 on the Contender Series. Alacabek was winning early but gassed out and Knight took over and finished the fight. I’m not positive how deep the gas tank is on Brundage but of the little footage I’ve seen he does slow as the fight goes on.

Knight meanwhile is pretty durable, having only been finished once early in a fight, and I’m not sure Brundage has the ability to finish him. I do think Brundage is the more well-rounded fighter but it depends on how his cardio fares. The pick is going to be Brundage because I think he has the advantage on the feet and if he gets the takedown I believe he has the ability to finish. Not a confident pick at all, admittedly.

The post DWCS 2020 Week 5 Breakdown and Predictions appeared first on Cageside Press.

After an extensive twenty-fight amateur career with numerous titles, Nate “The Savage” Smith went pro in late 2017. Smith has a strong background in wrestling as he was a USA Junior Olympic wrestler in Greco Roman, a Fargo All-American, as well as a national champion.

Smith is 6-0 as a pro thus far, and his last fight was for LFA, seen exclusively on UFC Fight Pass. Nate Smith is formerly of Factory X and currently trains with Elevation Fight Team, alongside the likes of Curtis Blaydes, Austin Hubbard, Cory Sandhagen, Justin Gaethje and more.

Hailing from Sand Springs, Oklahoma, Jimmy Flick trains out of Forza Combat Sports. He enters the Contender Series fresh off a win not even a month back. That saw Flick beat Greg Fischer to become the LFA flyweight champion.

Flick has been in the sport for a decade and currently has a pro record of 14-5. Of those fourteen wins Flick has finished twelve of those, with all those finishes coming by submission. The 29-year-old is currently on a two-fight win streak.

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