For Yousri Belgaroui, a former kickboxing champ known for his time in GLORY and fights with Alex Pereira and Israel Adesanya, it was a chance to redeem himself after a disappointing decision loss last season. Belgaroui had gone on to win two fights since, looking like a different fighter than the one who appeared on the show a year ago.

Corrine Laframboise didn’t even make it onto the show last season, after a routine pre-fight medical exam revealed that she was pregnant. After giving birth to a baby girl, Laframboise now gets her shot at the UFC opposite Nicolle Caliari.

Where to Watch DWCS Season 8, Week 5

As always, this week’s Contender Series installment takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, NV and streams on ESPN+ in the U.S., and SportsNet/UFC Fight Pass in Canada. The action gets underway at 8PM ET, 5PM PT. Full results can be found below.

Dana White’s Contender Series Season 8, Week 5 Results

Light Heavyweight: Navajo Stirling def. Phillip Latu via R2 TKO, 2:21
Lightweight: Quemuel Ottoni vs. Kody Steele
Middleweight: Yousri Belgaroui def. Taiga Iwasaki via R3 TKO, 2:34
Bantamweight: Josias Musasa def. Otari Tanzilovi via Split-Decision (29-28×2, 28-29)
Women’s Flyweight: Nicolle Caliari def. Corrine Laframboise via R1 SUB (Arm Bar), 4:45

Contracts:

• Nicolle Caliari
• Josias Musasa
• Navajo Stirling

The post Dana White’s Contender Series Season 8, Week 5 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.

Yousri “Baby Face Assassin” Belgaroui (7-3 MMA)

Age: 32 years old

Height: 6’5″ / Reach: 79″

Weight Class: Middleweight (185lbs.)

First DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2023 (Week 4)

Old DW’s Contender Series Opponent: Marco Tulio (12-1 MMA)

Second DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2024 (Week 5)

New Opponent: Taiga Iwasaki (9-1 MMA)

First Contender Series Fight

Yousri Belgaroui was on the Contender Series for the first time on Week 4 of last year’s season. Belgaroui had an extensive kickboxing career under the Glory promotion. He also fought former UFC middleweight champions Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira two times each.

Leading up to his berth on the Contender Series Yousri obtained a 4-2 record with the UAE Warriors promotion. Yousri stopped four of the five opponents that he faced ahead of his first Contender Series fight.

Unfortunately, Belgaroui was soundly defeated in a three round unanimous decision in his first showing on the Contender Series.

First Contender Series Opponent

In his first fight on the Contender Series, Yousri faced Marco Tulio. Marco entered the fight with a 9-1 record and did not receive a contract as a result of his unanimous decision victory.

Tulio has since finished his opponent at LFA 175 in early 2024. Marco stopped his 6-4 foe in the second round of their bout.

Most recently Tulio got a shot at redemption of his own as he was also invited back to DWCS on Week 3 a couple of weeks ago. Marco made good on his second chance stopping his opponent, Matthieu Duclos with a spinning back kick and punches in the second round of their bout.

The Road Back 

In the year since Belgaroui was on the Contender Series he has competed twice. Both times Yousri has competed under the Levels Fight League promotional banner based out of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Yousri fought 10-4 opponent, Giorgi Kvelidze, and stopped him with one second to go in the opening round of the bout. That fight was in October of 2023.

Earlier this year in February the former Glory kickboxer defeated 11-3, Ahmed Sami, via unanimous decision. The results have seemingly produced Belgaroui’s second appearance on the Contender Series.

Gameplan/ New Opponent 

For Yousri’s shot at redemption on the Contender Series he will be facing Taiga Iwasaki. Yousri was originally supposed to be facing Anvarbek Daniyalbekov, but the bout was cancelled when Anvarbek withdrew from the fight.

Iwasaki’s sole loss is a round one arm lock loss to the very dangerous, Rafael Lovato Jr., at the end of 2022. That fight was Taiga’s only loss in his pro career and one of just two fighters that he’s fought with a winning record. The combined record of Iwasaki’s opponents at the time he fought them was: 25-30 (Keep in mind Lovato Jr. was 10-0 when they fought.)

Taiga has slowed his pace in comparison to the first part of his career having only competed twice in the last two years. The Japanese fighter started his career at a blistering pace running thru inexperienced competition and has now attracted the attention of the UFC in the past couple of years.

The post Redemption: Second Chances on Dana White’s Contender Series – Yousri Belgaroui appeared first on Cageside Press.

Speaking of Pereira, the man who beat him early on in his MMA career arrives on the Contender Series this week, as Quemuel Ottoni takes on the undefeated Kody Steele. And Corinne Laframboise, who was to have appeared on the Contender Series last year before learning she was pregnant, finally gets her shot at the UFC.

We’ve got you covered as always on this week’s action – read on for our predictions!

Light-heavyweight, Navajo Stirling (4-0) vs. Phillip Latu (6-1)

Notable Notes

• This fight was originally scheduled four different ways.
• Latu previously fought at heavyweight.
• Stirling won titles at both light-heavyweight and heavyweight.
• Both have kickboxing backgrounds.
• Both have six combined wins by KO/TKO.
• Latu has never gone the distance. Stirling has and won unanimously.

Prediction: I was underwhelmed when I first started tape on Latu. When you look at his loss and compare it to his last few fights he looks like a different fighter however. In a good way, as I can see him as a UFC fighter. With Stirling, he doesn’t have a lot of tape out there but of what’s available you can see the potential. He’s two-time King in the Cage champion (kickboxing). Stirling is based out of Auckland, New Zealand, and trains out of City Kickboxing.

Both are strikers but Stirling will actually attempt takedowns and at least looks competent. Stirling has some questions like his cardio, chin, and how he faces adversity. He may of went through all that but we don’t know because there is no tape on him that shows it. Still, in a pure striking/kickboxing fight Stirling is on a level above Latu.

Latu is dangerous with his hands but with Stirling it’s multiple layers. Stirling can go to the body, pick apart opponents from range, and land knees and elbows in the clinch. He does all that while creating traps. He’s a very high IQ fighter and that means so much more with the higher weight classes. I feel Stirling will pick apart Latu at range and land a knockout blow as Latu comes forward. I’ve got Stirling by TKO in round two and I’m 90% confident.

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