After another night of action packed fights in the fourth installment of Dana White’s Contender Series, two more fighters, Julian Marquez and Brandon Davies, will be offered UFC contracts by the promotion’s president after impressing with their respective victories on Tuesday night.
In the featured event of the night, Marquez fought teammate of UFC Light-Heavyweight champion Jon Jones; Phil Hawes. The National State wrestling champion was off to a flyer when he landed numerous successful take-downs. However, not much damage was sustained by Marquez in the exchanges.
In the second round, Marquez came out firing and rocked Hawes. Hawes made it back to his feet but the former Bellator MMA man landed a stunning head kick, knocking Hawes out cold. This jaw dropping KO was enough to see Marquez offered his UFC contract by White.
Brandon Davis has a reputable coach in Alan Belcher, who is also the coach of UFC contenders Chase Sherman and Jason Knight. Despite this, Davis would found himself underdog against Austin Arnett who was riding a 13 fight win streak prior to their contest.
Davis came out swinging from the off and despite Arnett landing punches towards the end of the round, Davis did enough to take the first period on the scorecards. Davis survived a near scare when he was almost submitted by his opponents but went on to take control. A nasty elbow opened up the forehead of Arnett and Davis went on to dominate the third and take victory by unanimous decision. The eye-catching performance landed Davis the second contract of the night.
MMA Lab athlete Kyler Phillips took on James Gray in the penultimate fight of the episode. Phillips, a teammate of Sean O’Malley, who previously earned a contract in week two of the series, vowed to be exciting prior to the fight and delivered.
Phillips landed numerous elbows from the clinch, to the head of Gray, rocking him to the floor. Despite regaining consciousness, Gray was again rocked by a thunderous strike from Phillips, forcing the referee to intervene within the very first minute.
Carlos Candelario had never lost a single contest, whether it be jiu-jitsu, kickboxing or even professional mixed martial arts, prior to entering the cage. However, he would face a different challenge in training partner of Jose Aldo; Ronaldo Candido. With the pair of fighters sharing perfect records of (6-0), this made for interesting viewing.
Despite an early take-down from Candido, Candalerio reversed it and landed numerous blows from the top, taking the round. The second round was a carbon copy with Carlos escaping positions really well. Late submission attempts and dominance in the last few minutes handed Candido the final round but this wasn’t enough as Candalerio took a unanimous decision victory.
In the opening fight of the night, Carlos Castaneda bounced back from a losing first round to beat Cheyden Leialoha via unanimous decision. However, neither looked particularly impressive, hence no contract being awarded to either of two fighters.
