Week two of Dana White’s Contender Series has arrived as this week, the main event features a pair of welterweights while MMA Sucka provides Dana White’s Contender Series 38 results for the rest of week two. When the night is over, at least one of the winners will earn a UFC contract.
Dana White’s Contender Series 38 Results – Main Event
Taking each other on in the main event will be welterweight fighters Josh Quinlan and Logan Urban. Entering this fight, Quinlan holds an undefeated professional record of 5-0 while Urban enters the fight with a record of 5-1. As he holds a record of 5-0, Quinlan also holds a finish rate of 100% as he has not gone the distance once in his career. In his last three outings, which were all with LFA, Quinlan picked up KO/TKO wins over Pete Keepers and Joe Boerschig, plus a submission win over Dallas Jennings.
With his record of 5-1, Quinlan’s opponent, Logan Urban, also holds a 100% finish rate as all five of his wins were earned inside the dhristy martinistance. He suffered his one loss in his second professional fight after being finished by TKO against Zack Davis in 2018. Following that loss, Urban won his next fight by TKO after his opponent retired at the end of the second round. Since then, his last three wins have all come with the Ohio Combat League. Over that time, he has picked up submission wins over Jimmy Sandlin and Ravon Baxter as well as a knockout win over Antoine Blassingame.
Dana White’s Contender Series 38 Results – Co-Main Event
This week’s Contender Series co-main event features a middleweight fight between Mario Sousa and Chidi Njokuani.
Sousa will be entering the fight with a record of 12-1 as well as experience on the Contender Series. After picking up four straight finishes following his only loss in 2018, Sousa got a shot on the Contender Series last season. In week nine last season, Sousa faced off against Mariusz Ksiazkiewicz. He ended up winning the fight by unanimous decision, however it was not enough for him to earn a UFC contract. He was scheduled for another fight earlier this year but it was cancelled due to COVID reasons, allowing Sousa to get another shot at the Contender Series.
Facing off against Sousa will be Chidi Njokuani who had a three to four year run with Bellator from November 2015 to July 2019. One notable win he had on his record before he started his career with Bellator was a split decision win over current UFC fighter Max Griffin at TPF 23. During his run with Bellator, Njokuani put together a record of 5-3. The most notable win he picked up over that time was a unanimous decision win over MMA veteran Melvin Guillard. His Bellator career came to an end in 2019 after he suffered back to back losses. In his most recent fight, at LFA 91, Njokuani picked up a TKO finish over Cristhian Torres.
Dana White’s Contender Series 38 Results – Rest of Card
Starting off the night for week two of season five will be a bantamweight match up between Muin Gafurov and Chad Anheliger. A former member of ONE Championship, Gafurov enters the fight with a record of 16-3. In his last three fights, Gafurov holds a record of 2-1. These three matches date back to 2018 where he picked up a knockout win over Leandro Issa. In his next outing, he lost by unanimous decision to former UFC bantamweight John Lineker. In his most recent fight, at UAE Warriors 15, Gafurov picked up a unanimous decision win over Walter Zamora.
As for Anheliger, he enters the fight, holding a professional record of 10-5. Years ago, in 2013 and 2014, Anheliger was on a three fight losing streak, with a pro record of 2-5. After being away for nearly two years, Anheliger returned and snapped his three fight losing streak with a knockout win over Cory Chambers at Saturday Night Fights – Round 11. Since then, Anheliger has not lost another fight as he is currently riding a eight fight win streak heading into the Contender Series. In his last three fights, all with Rise FC, Anheliger picked up back to back to back TKO wins over Terrence Chan, Craig Maclean and one of the Ultimate Fighter 29 finalists, Brady Hiestand.
The second fight on the card will be a flyweight bout between CJ Vergara and Bruno Korea. Vergara will be entering the fight having won his last four straight outings. Following a submission loss in 2018, he has since picked up four straight finishes. All four of these wins were with Fury FC as he started out with back to back TKO wins over Ramiro Ruiz Castillo and Emerson David Guerrero Garcia. In his two most recent fights, he picked up more KO/TKO wins as he finished Shawn Solis and Jacob Silva.
Korea enters the fight with a pro record of 12-3-1 as he has not lost a fight since 2017. After that loss, he picked up three straight finishes under WOCS. During that time, he picked up two submissions over William da Siva Oliveira and Allan Ferreira as well as a TKO win over Lucas Alfalfa. In his three fights since then, Korea has picked up two wins as well as fought to a draw. Prior to the draw, he won a unanimous decision against Leandro Soares. He would then go on to fight Joao Ellis to a majority draw at Future FC 9. Finally, in his most recent outing, Korea picked up a submission win over Felipe Gheno.
Last but not least, the fight taking place before the middleweight co-main event will be a bantamweight match between Saimon Oliveira and Jose Alday. Oliveira enters the fight with a record of 17-3 as he has won his last four in a row. He also holds only one decision victory in all of his 17 wins. His last four wins all came by finish as he won three straight submissions over Edezio da Hora Santana, Wesley Bull and Jeferson Bastos. In his most recent appearance, Oliveira finished Wataru Mimura by technical submission.
Alday will be entering the fight with a record of 13-5-1. Alday started his career off 7-0 but since then has not been able to put more than three straight wins together. The last time he won more than two straight fights was when he won three straight from 2017-2018. However, since then, he has gone 2-2 in four fights, alternating wins and losses each time. He is coming off a TKO win in his last outing against Marcos Lopez with Combate Global as he looks to win back to back fights once again and try to earn a UFC contract.
Dana White’s Contender Series 38 Results – Contract Winners
Earning a contract on Dana White’s Contender Series 38 is:
Chad Anheliger, CJ Vergara, Saimon Oliveira, Chidi Njokuani, and Josh Quinlan.
Follow along with MMASucka as we provide you with Dana White’s Contender Series 38 Results throughout the card as well as a recap after each fight.
MAIN CARD (ESPN+ – 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT)
Josh Quinlan def. Logan Urban via Knockout (Punches) at 0:47 of Round One
Recap: The fight started with a touch of gloves and thirty seconds later, Quinlan landed a huge right handed that stunned Urban. He started retreating back to the fence where Quinlan did not let up one bit as he continued landing heavy punches until Urban eventually dropped to the mat forcing the end of the fight. With a forty-seven second finish, Quinlan joined Vergara as the second fighter tonight to end their fight in less than a minute. Look for him to earn a contract as well.
Chidi Njokuani def. Mario Sousa via TKO (Strikes) at 1:35 of Round Three
Recap: Each fighter came out in the first round with a kick heavy game as they landed lots of leg kicks and body kicks. However, there were also a couple of minute or longer breaks in the action due to two groin shots landed by Sousa each time they clinched. After nearly a total of five minutes between each break, the action resumed with just over a minute remaining. In that last minute, Njokuani controlled the majority of it on top after reversing a takedown attempt by Sousa.
When the second round began, it was not long before Njokuani landed a shot that stunned Sousa but Sousa quickly clinched with Njokuani to try and recover. After recovering, Sousa began searching for a takedown and eventually he was able to pull Njokuani down. However, Njokuani quickly reversed the position and ended up on top. While on top, Njokuani landed some heavy elbows while scrambling to avoid the submission attempts from Sousa. The round came to a close with Njokuani still on top after landing some hard shots.
In round three, Njokuani started off by quickly landing a knee to Sousa’s body that forced Sousa to go down. After that, Njokuani entered Sousa’s guard where he landed ground and pound for the next minute before the referee stopped the fight. After a pretty dominant win, Njokuani could come out tonight with a UFC contract.
Saimon Oliveira def. Jose Alday via Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Recap: Oliveira began the fight with a very kick heavy game plan as he attacked the legs of Alday while throwing lots of head kicks and spinning back fists. Alday was having his own success on the feet too because when he landed, he landed hard and he stunned Oliveira a couple of times. With just over half of the first round remaining, Oliveira got a takedown and held Alday there for the remainder of the round.
Less than a minute into round two, Oliveira shot for another takedown, but this time, Alday defended it well and remained on his feet. As the round went on and the pair traded shots in the center, it seemed Oliveira was beginning to fatigue after throwing so many spinning attacks. As the round came to a close, Alday continued moving forward, landing heavy shots to the body of Oliveira.
Oliveira started off round three well with a hard right hand that he followed up with a takedown. Oliveira would keep Alday down on the mat and control him there for basically the remainder of the fight. There was about a minute in between takedowns where they stood and traded before Oliveira landed another takedown. With about forty seconds left, Oliveira let Alday get back to his feet as he wanted to stand and bang for the final moments of the round. After landing some nice shots, the horn sounded and after his big push in the final round, Oliveira would come out with the split decision win.
CJ Vergara def. Bruno Korea via TKO (Strikes) at 0:41 of Round One
Recap: Vergara started off the round quickly taking the center of the cage and throwing strikes. Korea countered with some flashy shots including a flying knee and a spinning wheel kick that both missed. As Vergara continued moving forward, he landed a right hook that buckled Korea allowing Vergara to tie up the clinch and start launching knees to Korea’s face. After landing a series of knees to Korea’s head, Vergara landed the perfectly placed fight ending knee to Korea’s body. Korea crumbled to the mat and tapped as the ref rushed in to stop the fight. Look for Vergara to definitely earn himself a UFC contract at the end of the night.
Chad Anheliger def. Muin Gafurov via Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Recap: In the first two rounds, Gafurov was successful on multiple takedown attempts. Many times he was able to get himself into an advantageous position, taking Anheliger’s back or taking full mount. Although Gafurov was getting so many takedowns, Anheliger was able to make it a little closer than it seemed. He was having the most success when they were on the feet including his best moment of the fight in round one when he dropped Gafurov with a knee. He was unable to finish the fight though as Gafurov quickly recovered and started fishing for armbars.
Going into the final round of the fight, each fighter could have had one round each. In the third round, Gafurov was able to get the fight to the ground again but he could not hold Anheliger there for long. A majority of this round was spent of the feet while Anheliger also had some of his own control time on top. As the fight came to a close, the two stood and traded in the center of the octagon until the final horn. When it was all said and done, Gafurov had a lot of takedowns and ground control but Anheliger was able to fight through all of that and shine on the feet to earn the win.
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