DWCS, also known as Dana White’s Contender Series, has been a summer (and in recent years, early fall) treat for MMA fans every week. Since 2017, the MMA promotion has held its cards on Tuesday nights, save for one Wednesday night episode in November of 2020 after the 2020 US elections.
Although the fighters and weight classes on Contender Series have varied from week to week, the goal has always been exactly the same: Impress UFC CEO Dana White to the point where he extends a promotional contract to a competitor by the end of the evening on DWCS.
After the eighth season finale of the show concluded last October, the number of fighters who have secured a UFC contract as a direct result of appearing on the show has risen to 280. 42 fighters won contracts last season alone on DWCS.
Examining Notable DWCS Alumni Before Season Nine Begins
2025 marks the ninth season of DWCS and it’s also the last season of the program to be streamed on the show’s current United States home of ESPN+. In the aftermath of the June 21 UFC Baku show in Azerbaijan, White mentioned the possibility that future seasons of the show could see their episode counts doubled.
While there’s no word yet on where you’ll be able to see future seasons of the show beyond 2025 or if, indeed, the episode number will be increased for upcoming seasons of DWCS, there’s one certainty: Of the 280 alumni who’ve won their way to the promotion from the show, there have been a number of exciting fighters on Contender Series.
Dana White just announced with the new TV deal they are working on, they will be doing twice as many #DWCS fights. Wow.
— Adam Martin (@MMAdamMartin) June 21, 2025
Let’s get going, but before we do, there’s one important caveat: This is not a countdown piece. We’ll be going in random order today.
Notable DWCS Alumni: Greg Hardy
Our first alumnus in this DWCS retrospective is a controversial one in the heavyweight division. In 2016, former Dallas Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy saw his playing career come to an end following six tumultuous seasons and a series of troubling off-field transgressions, resulting in a four-game suspension to begin his 2015 season, down from 10 games.
Upon leaving football behind, he turned his attention to the world of MMA, being booked to appear on the 2018 season premiere of DWCS. Dana White’s decision to have Greg Hardy on the show drew the ire of the general public and those within the UFC, who wondered why someone charged with domestic violence would be allowed to compete on the show, though the charges were eventually dropped.
Hardy would wind up appearing on Contender Series twice that second season, knocking out Austen Lane in 57 seconds on opening night, resulting in Dana White putting him on a developmental deal with the UFC, returning on the finale that August and finishing Tebaris Gordon in 17 seconds.
He’d make his UFC debut in January of 2019 in Brooklyn, losing by illegal knee to Allen Crowder in the second round. That October in Boston, Hardy briefly won his fight against Ben Sosoli by unanimous decision after three rounds, but the result was soon reversed to a no-contest.
Hardy, who suffers from exercise-induced asthma, had illegally used his inhaler during the recess between the second and third rounds of the contest when he shouldn’t have been granted permission to do so. “The Prince of War” would eventually depart the UFC after going 4-5 with one no-contest in 10 appearances, with his last fight under the promotional banner coming in 2022 before turning to traditional and bare-knuckle boxing.
Notable DWCS Alumni: Payton Talbott
We move onto a fighter who’s much less controversial and one of the more recent graduates of Contender Series. In the early days of A1 Combat after its rebrand from Firepower MMA, Payton Talbott was one of the company’s brightest stars, winning three bantamweight championship fights under Urijah Faber’s promotional banner.
In August of 2023, the seventh season of DWCS began with Payton Talbott touching down at the Apex in Enterprise, NV for a fight against Reyes Cortez after having defended his belt twice over. As someone who watched Talbott’s championship fights in A1 Combat before he got the call-up, my thoughts were “This guy should get on Contender Series because if he does, he’ll get a UFC contract.”
Although Payton Talbott had to go to the scorecards on DWCS, the end result was a common one for him: A dominant win. He’d score post-fight bonuses twice over in his initial UFC appearances before suffering his first professional defeat at the hands of Raoni Barcelos this past January.
Heading into his next fight on June 28, Talbott boasts an incredible .900 winning percentage and the sky is the limit for this young man.
Notable DWCS Alumni: Sean O’Malley
For our third and final alumnus mentioned herein today, we’ll stay in the bantamweight ranks and talk about a former UFC Bantamweight Champion. Sean O’Malley appeared on the second-ever episode of DWCS in July of 2017.
That night, he drew the assignment of Alfred Khashakyan in the co-main event. The then-7-0 “Suga” passed this test with flying colors, stopping his adversary inside the opening round with a punch. As for Khashakyan, his most-recent fight occurred right before the pandemic in January of 2020.
A planned 2021 fight versus John De Jesus was scrubbed without a punch thrown. O’Malley made his UFC debut on the 2017 finale of The Ultimate Fighter television series, besting Terrion Ware by unanimous decision, following it up with another victory on the scorecards versus Andre Soukhamthath in March of 2018.
From there, he briefly turned to grappling before returning to the UFC in 2020, where he picked up two more wins in 89 days in spite of the pandemic. O’Malley would rise through the ranks at 135 and scored the division’s championship in the summer of 2023. He’d defend it once before losing it to Merab Dvalishvili in Noche UFC in September of 2024.
A rematch in UFC 316 saw the latter fighter defend his title. One of the earliest graduates of DWCS now plots his next move inside the Octagon. We’ll keep you posted on who O’Malley fights next.
