UFC president Dana White signed three more fighters to UFC contracts following the conclusion of Tuesday night’s Contender Series 33.
White has been busy handing out contracts during the fourth season of the Contender Series. With the UFC doing a show every weekend and with so many fights falling out at the last minute, the promotion has had no problem giving out contracts to Contender Series talent, and this Tuesday’s edition of the popular show was no different.
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Of the three fighters signed, middleweight Jordan Williams was perhaps the biggest no-brainer for White. The 29-year-old Williams picked up a vicious first-round TKO win over Gregory Rodrigues in the evening’s main event to bounce back after a split decision loss to Ramazan Kuramagomedov on last season’s edition of the show. Williams, a Bellator veteran, moved to 9-3 overall in MMA with this big TKO win over Rodrigues.
The other fighter who was essentially a no brainer was featherweight Collin Anglin, who won a unanimous decision over a durable Muhammadjon Naimov in a back-and-forth fight. Although Anglin didn’t get the finish, which is generally what White and the UFC look for from the Contender Series fighters, he was trying to get the finish for the whole 15 minutes. It was a fantastic fight and White made the right call giving Anglin a deal.
The third fighter who got a deal was women’s featherweight Danyelle Wolf, and this decision from White ignited plenty of controversy among fans online. Wolf is a pro boxer with over 40 pro boxing fights and at age 37 she has been in the fight game for a long time. But this fight against Taneisha Tennant marked her pro MMA debut and many fans felt that Wolf should have lost the decision. Even though White admitted that he saw the criticism online from fans towards Wolf, he decided to give the 1-0 fighter a UFC deal.
While the UFC women’s featherweight division is shallow and needs more talent in it, the fact that so many viewers felt that Wolf didn’t even deserve the decision over Tennant makes it a controversial one to give her a deal. Although White has been handing out more deals this season, the decision to hand Wolf a contract seemed like a stretch.
Despite winning their fights, welterweight Michael Lombardo and featherweight Kyle Driscoll were passed on by White, who said he wanted to see more from both guys.
Do you think Dana White made the right call signing these three fighters from the latest edition of the Contender Series?