Dana White’s Contender Series: Season 8, Episode 4 Recap

Dana White’s Contender Series: Season 8, Episode 4 Recap

On Dana White’s Contender Series: Season 8 Episode 4 , all five winners walked away as UFC fighters. That was the first time every winner walked away with a UFC contract. The goal of this post is to determine which fighters have the most promising careers in the UFC. This ranking has the most promising prospects at the top of the post.

Austin Bashi- Featherweight

The standout performer from this episode of DWCS was Austin Bashi. The 22-year-old earned a UFc contract with a submission win over Dorian Santos.

Bashi’s standout skill was his ability to push the pace with offensive grappling. For the majority of the bout, he was offensively grappling while Santos was put in heavily defensive positions. In the moments Bashi established an advantageous position, he was active with ground-and-pound or submissions. This pace and offensive output eventually broke Santos and created the opportunity to find a finish.

The downside for Bashi is that he does not have top-tier grappling. It is high quality and will be an advantage in most of his fights, but his overall grappling quality is not at as high a level as other primary grapplers. At the same time, his striking is unproven. On the offensive side, he throws hard and likely holds knockout power. It will be interesting to see how he holds up defensively if he is unable to land takedowns.

An interesting note for Bashi is that he will be competing at featherweight. This has positives and negatives. The concerning aspect is that he will be undersized early in his UFC run. That should result in success long term, however. Bashi can grow into the weight class and will not have to focus on cutting weight while developing his skills.

Bashi should manage to get UFC victories with his current skills. The grappling pace that he can set will break opponents. The problems will arise once he begins to take steps up the featherweight ladder. If the UFC takes Bashi slow and allows him to work on his skills, he could have a great UFC career. That said, those improvements will need to take place at some point.

Quillan Salkilld- Lightweight

Quillan Salkilld went to war against Gauge Young on this episode of DWCS. Salkilld was the one who got his hand raised at the end of the bout and earned a UFC contract as a result.

At 24 years old, Salkilld has an interesting skillset. It begins with his length. Salkilld stands at six-foot-tall with a 75-inch reach. This allows him to throw an absurd number of body kicks. Those shots eventually took their toll. Similarly, he used his length to land several nasty strikes. On top of his striking skills, Salkilld mixed takedowns. This made the bout even more grueling for Young.

I have concerns about Salkilld’s size as he enters the UFC. In the past, I’ve been high on bigger lightweights. That said, it has not always worked out. In his DWCS bout, he was taking on a shorter opponent which made his strengths more evident. I want to see what he looks like against an opponent his size. I am also concerned that he will be forced to move to welterweight. After all, he is only 24. It is unlikely he can have a lengthy career without moving up. If he is forced to move up, his size advantage will disappear. In the last season of DWCS, Tom Nolen earned a contract as a big lightweight and is already at welterweight. In hindsight, I ranked Nolen too highly. That is only partially because of size, but the point is that Salkilld is not an outlier. Instead, we have already seen a fighter in his shoes have issues.

Ultimately, Salkilld goes down as a solid DWCS signee. The body kicks and commitment to takedowns should cause issues for lightweights. I could see him having issues against fighters who can crash the pocket and throw boxing combinations. Similarly, he will not be able to grapple with every opponent he fights. I do not doubt he can have success, but it’s a treacherous path to the lightweight rankings.

Seok Hyun Ko- Welterweight

The final three fighters from this episode of DWCS are less exciting prospects. That is not to say they did not earn their contract. Rather, they just hold less ability to get UFC wins with less upside.

This tier of prospects begins with Seok Hyun Ko. Ko picked up a decision win over Igor Cavalcanti to earn a contract.

This was a weird fight. Cavalcanti is a great athlete, but he is a very raw MMA fighter. That resulted in a lot of massive swings that did not land. Ko deserves credit for avoiding the wild brawl while Cavalcanti gassed out. Once Cavalcanti was gassed, Ko landed straight shots and controlled the top position. This was enough to get the victory.

I doubt Ko rattles off a bunch of UFC wins, but I respect his level of patience while still going enough to win the fight. This was done while minimizing mistakes which prevented Cavalcanti from landing a counter.

I am not expecting Ko to make a massive UFC impact. I just do not see an elite skill or a path to an elite skill. Regardless, he showed a fairly well-rounded offensive skill set. That placed which placed him above the fighters we have yet to mention.

Djorden Santos- Middleweight Bout

The next DWCS contestant to earn a UFC contract was Djorden Santos. Santos earned his UFC deal with a decision win over Will Currie.

This bout was relatively simple. Currie was looking to throw kicks from the outside or land takedowns. Santos got into boxing range and defended takedowns. This allowed him to land a ton of straight shots.

Djorden will essentially use straight punches, striking volume, and takedown defense to win UFC fights. I highly doubt he is ever a great fighter. That said, the UFC middleweight division has a bunch of horrible fighters. It is not an overstatement to say straight punches and takedown defense will prevent him from leaving the UFC winless.

Yuneisy Duben- Women’s Flyweight

The final DWCS contract winner, Yunisey Duben, won brutally. The Venezuelan landed an overhand right that put Shannon Clark out cold. It was a highlight reel finish.

Unfortunately, Duben is not a great fighter. I don’t take pride in raining on the parade, but it’s obvious. After all, she was a +800 underdog. Bookmakers are not idiots. They are making highly skilled fighters massive underdogs. Especially, on DWCS.

Duben’s performance can be boiled down to landing a massive overhand against a fighter with horrible striking defense. It makes for a great highlight but doesn’t scream great UFC fighter.

It is hard to imagine Duben has UFC success. The only imaginable route is that she fights softball matchups (which will be hard to find) to propel her to victories.

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