Season 7 of DWCS wraps up Tuesday night in Las Vegas, with six fights rather than the usual five. That’s thanks to Lucas Rocha and Davi Bittencourt, originally scheduled to take place last week at flyweight. With Rocha missing weight badly enough that the fight was scrapped, matchmakers opted to keep the pairing together, and pushed them back a week and up a weight class to bantamweight.

Along with those hopefuls, returning fighters Connor Matthews and Ramon Taveras were getting their own second shot at the UFC. Taveras was actually fighting for the second time this season, while Matthews had appeared on the show last year, falling to Francis Marshall.

Dana White’s Contender Series Season 7, Week 10 takes place Tuesday, October 10, 2023 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, NV. The card streams live on EPSN+ in the U.S., and UFC Fight Pass elsewhere. Full results can be found below.

Rocha and Bittencourt kicked off Week 10 of DWCS Season 7, and it was Bittencourt repeatedly landing slam takedowns in the opening round. The first of those was the most emphatic but he nearly allowed Rocha to reverse position. Still, by the end of the round Davi Bittencourt had no fewer than six takedowns, and had thrown out some fun, flashy spinning attacks.

None of that mattered come round two, when Rocha connected with a knee just 18 seconds into the round for the knockout!

Second verse, same as the first. Or second fight, anyway. Marquel Mederos flashed stance switches and chewed up the calf of Issa Isakov, a training partner of Benoit St. Denis, in the opening round of their lightweight fight — and connected with a knee for the finish at 4:09 of round one! Two straight knee strike finishes to open the night!

Torrez Finney vs. Yuri Panferov was a different sort of beast. The middleweight fight saw both men swinging early, and Finney was rocked! He pursued a takedown, and landed a slam, keeping himself in it. A very active, fun first round, and in the second, Finney earned a takedown and took the back. That’s a whole lot of body to carry on your back, and Panferov did not like the neck crank he found himself in. He survived that, but Finney would secure a rear-naked choke and force the tap moments later! The first submission win of Torrez Finney’s career, and you could do worse than do it on Dana White’s Contender Series.

The first fight of the night to go the distance saw Connor Matthews pick up a unanimous decision win over Jair Farias. Matthews had an especially dominant second round, even landing a head kick that Farias somehow ate. Mixing in takedowns along with elbows in the clinch and sharp hands, Matthews looked solid in his second DWCS showing.

The lone flyweight fight of Week 10 also went the distance, with Andre Lima coming away with a clear-cut decision win. Rickson Zenidim proved to have heart and a solid chin, but it wasn’t nearly enough as Lima earned a trio of 30-27 scores.

The final fight of the night, and season, didn’t last long. Ramon Taveras and Cortavious Romious chose to stand and bang, and it was Taveras who remained standing when the dust cleared.

Dana White’s Contender Series Season 7, Week 10 Results

Bantamweight: Ramon Taveras def. Cortavious Romious by TKO (strikes), Round 1, 0:29
Flyweight: André Lima def. Rickson Zenidim by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Featherweight: Connor Matthews def. Jair Farias by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Middleweight: Torrez Finney def. Yuri Panferov by submission (rear-naked choke), Round 2, 2:43
Lightweight: Marquel Mederos def. Issa Isakov by TKO (knee), Round 1, 4:09
Bantamweight: Lucas Rocha def. Davi Bittencourt by KO (knee), Round 2, 0:18

Contract winners: Lucas Rocha, Marquel Mederos, Connor Matthews, Andre Lima, Ramon Taveras

The post Dana White’s Contender Series Season 7, Week 10 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.

For this week, the 10th and final week of the Contender Series for 2023, the Redemption Series will be taking a look at Connor Matthews. 

Connor “The Controller” Matthews (6-1 MMA)

Age: 31 years old

Height: 5’8″ / Reach: 71″

Weight Class: Featherweight (145lbs.)

First DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2022 (Week 2)

Old DW’s Contender Series Opponent: Francis Marshall (7-2 MMA)

Second DW’s Contender Series Fight: 2023 (Week 10)

New Opponent: Jair Farias (10-0 MMA)

First Contender Series Fight

Connor Matthews entered his first Contender Series fight in 2022 with a perfect professional record of 5-0. Matthews had finished all five of his opponents in the first round and only had a total fight time of 2 minutes and 49 seconds. All of his wins except his first (a 7 second KO) were via submission.

Matthews trains out of the New England Cartel, home to talented UFC strikers like Calivn Kattar and Rob Font.

Matthews lost a unanimous decision in what was completely uncharted territory as he had never made it past the first round in a pro MMA fight.

Connor displayed solid offensive boxing as you would expect, training with the caliber of guys that he does. Matthews also showed a great ability to keep his opponent on the end of his straight punches, maximizing his reach.

Matthews struggled with defending the takedown against his opponent and was momentarily stunned a few times throughout the fight. While on the ground Connor was able to show that he does have very competent defensive grappling. And even though the fight didn’t come out in Connor’s favor he raised his stock by continually moving forward and throwing strikes despite slowing down a bit throughout the fight.

First Contender Series Opponent

For Connor’s first fight on the Contender Series, he took on a fellow undefeated fighter at 5-0, in Francis Marshall. Of Marshall’s five MMA bouts heading into the Contender Series, he finished four of them via rear naked choke. Marshall obviously has some pretty good offensive wrestling.

Marshall received a UFC contract as a result of his performance against Matthews. Francis has fought three times in the UFC thus far.

Francis took on then, 16-8 fighter, Marcelo Rojo in December of 2022. Francis was able to finish his opponent in the second round via punches.

Earlier this year in April, Francis took on then 11-2 fighter, William Gomis for his second outing. Unfortunately, Marshall would find himself on the wrong side of split decision.

And in Marshall’s most recent fight he took on 5-0 fighter, Isaac Dulgarian back in August. Marshall would be finished with just 12 seconds to go in the first round via ground and pound.

This loss didn’t age badly for Matthews as it’s important to keep in mind that Francis Marshall isn’t even ten fights into his professional career yet, is 24 years old and showed good things in all his fights thus far.

The Road Back 

Since losing on the Contender Series a year and about two months ago, Matthews has fought just one time.

Connor’s bout was earlier this year, in March, when he took on then 8-4, Andrew Cruz, in the main event of Combat Zone 79. Connor finished his opponent in just under four minutes of the first round.

Gameplan/ New Opponent 

For Connor’s shot at redemption, this time, he will be taking on 10-0 undefeated fighter, Jair Farias. Jair is very dangerous as he has finished nine of the ten fighters that he has faced in pro competition.

Farias has been cutting his teeth on the regional Brazilian circuit and the combined record of his opponents at the time of fighting them was: 40-22

Farias is largely untested and has solid leg kicks and a big right hand. Connor will look to capture a contract this time around in the last edition of the 2023 season of the Contender Series.

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With last year seeing 43 UFC contracts dished out, and six fights on the final week of the show (including Lucas Rocha vs. Davi Bittencourt, now at bantamweight), there was a good chance last year’s haul would be surpassed. Making DWCS 2023 the most successful season ever, at least for fighters earning a shot in the big show.

We’ve got one last preview of the Contender Series this season, so let’s get to it!

Bantamweight: Ramon Taveras Vs. Cortavious Romious

Tale of the Tape

Pros and Cons

Who has the advantage?

Striking: Taveras
Speed: Romious
Output/Volume: Romious
Kickboxing: Romious
Striking defense: Even
Footwork/movement: Taveras
Wrestling: Romious
Grappling: Magomedaliev
Gas tank: Taveras

Prediction: Taveras is getting another rightful opportunity and Romious is also deserving of this opportunity.

After Romious lost his lone time as a pro he took an extensive layoff. Since he’s come back he’s run through his opponents. His only loss was to Bellator’s Jornel Lugo. The thing is, Lugo and Taveras are in a way similar fighters. Romious is a smaller bantamweight and he does struggle on the outside. He struggled with Lugo and I can see the same thing happening here. Taveras is four inches taller and has a three inch reach advantage.

Tavares being a good technical striker with a clean boxing attack; I can see him frustrating Romious from his preferred range. My prediction is Tavares because of the size and the big striking advantage.

The post DWCS 2023: Episode 10 Breakdown and Predictions appeared first on Cageside Press.

With DWCS 2022, White awarded 43 UFC contracts in total. Heading into Week 10 of DWCS 2023, 41 had already been dished out, including to fighters coming off a loss or draw.

With six fights on the docket in Week 10 thanks to Lucas Rocha vs. Davi Bittencourt being rebooked for the card (after Rocha had missed weight last week), there need only be two contracts to tie, and three to surpass the Season 6 total.

Weigh-ins for Dana White’s Contender Series Season 7, Week 10 take place on Monday, October 8, 2023 in Las Vegas, NV. Full results can be found below; the card takes place live on Tuesday Oct. 9 at the UFC Apex, streaming on ESPN+ in the U.S. and UFC Fight Pass elsewhere starting at 8PM ET.

There were no misses at the scales on Monday for the final week of DWCS Season 7!

Dana White’s Contender Series Season 7, Week 10 Weigh-In Results

Middleweight: Torrez Finney (186) vs. Yuri Panferov (186)
Featherweight: Connor Matthews (145) vs. Jair Farias (146)
Lightweight: Issa Isakov (156) vs. Marquel Mederos (155.5)
Flyweight: Rickson Thai Zenidim (126) vs. André Lima (125.5)
Bantamweight: Ramon Taveras (136) vs. Cortavious Romious (136)
Bantamweight: Lucas Rocha (133) vs. Davi Bittencourt (134.5)

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