Dana White’s Contender Series Season 7, Week 2 Recap
Dana White’s Contender Series (DWCS) Season 7, Week 2 saw five fighters earn a UFC contract. To recap the event, let’s discuss each new UFC fighter and how they project in the promotion.
The drill for these DWCS recaps is to forecast each prospect’s long-term UFC tenure. This week, outside of the fighter that tops the list, we have a lot of fighters that I have questions about. That makes this a challenge, but I am up for it.
Abdul-Kareem Al-Selwady — Lightweight
It would be hard to claim anyone other than Abdul-Kareem Al-Selwady was the top prospect from DWCS Season 7, Week 2. Al-Selwady earned a contract after clearly winning a decision against George Hardwick.
Al-Selwady gets a lot of credit for defeating Hardwick, who is the Cage Warriors lightweight champion and has displayed talent outside of the UFC. Frankly, Hardwick should not have had to fight on DWCS to get a contract, but Al-Sewady took advantage of the opportunity and got a win over a great opponent.
Al-Selwady and Hardwick both looked like UFC fighters. If you put this fight on a standard fight night card nobody would have disputed either man’s right to be in the UFC. Still, Al-Selwady was one step ahead. He was able to utilize his movement to manage range, he landed some great counters to dissuade Hardwick from throwing offensively, his power was evident, and he landed a few takedowns. That is the type of performance that shows you can win fights in the UFC.
At 28 years old, Al-Selwady has a solid pairing of UFC readiness and youthfulness. In the big show, he should be able to carve out a roster spot. It is hard to say if touches the UFC rankings. That is simply a tall task at a lightweight. Still, he has a high floor and a respectable ceiling.
Eduarda Moura — Women’s Strawweight
Out of the rest of the pact, Eduarda Moura stood out the most to me. Moura was able to show off her grappling as she dominated Janaina Silva on her way to a first-round submission.
The main reason that Moura stood out to me was because of her process. On the ground, Moura proved to be an educated grappler. She did a good job of controlling position, advancing at the right moments, and throwing ground and pound to help set up her submission.
I do have concerns about Moura, beginning with her opposition. I do not think Silva is a great fighter and she did not come into the fight in great shape. That gives me some hesitancy in getting too high on Moura considering she likely just crushed a can.
Ultimately, I have Moura in the two spot in this ranking because of her grappling upside. In the women’s strawweight division, Moura will have a fairly clear path to the rankings as the unranked portion of the weight class does not contain a ton of elite defensive grapplers.
Ibo Aslan — Light Heavyweight
Ibo Aslan made a statement on DWCS season seven week two as he earned a first-round knockout victory over Paulo Renato Jr. The stoppage was fairly simple as he tagged Renato once and followed up with massive hooks to finish the job.
We did not get much fight time from Aslan on DWCS, as his bout only lasted a couple of minutes. Still, I think the read on Aslan is very clear. To start, he is a striker with really nice kicks and a lot of power. If he gets his hands involved, it will be more pressure and power with less technique. If you drag him late into a fight, he will probably gas. Essentially, Aslan is the average light heavyweight.
I like Aslan’s baseline skills as he perfectly fits into the modern landscape of light heavyweight. That should earn him some wins off the bat. At 27, he has a reasonable amount of time to improve his skills too.
Charalampos Grigoriou — Bantamweight
Charalamps Grigoriou walked away from DWCS with a highlight reel finish. Grigoriou threw a great straight-left hook-straight combination. The first two shots did an amazing job of setting up the straight that led to the knockout. It was textbook stuff.
I had a hard time ranking Grigoriou. In all honesty, I simply do not have a great read on his skills. In his DWCS bout, the bout was fairly short and we did not learn much. On top of that, his regional film is not very telling because he fought low-level competition.
At 31 years old, I am not overly optimistic that Grigoriou will have an elite UFC run. Although, I do give him some leeway because he trains at Serra-Longo Fight Team which is great for any bantamweight.
Hyder Amil — Featherweight
The final contract winner from DWCS season seven episode two was Hyder Amil, who earned a narrow decision victory over Emrah Sonmez that left questions as to whether he would walk away with a contract.
In short, Amil spent 15 minutes defending the wrestling attacks from Sonmez. At the end of the first round, they were gassed. This led to each fighter having to go deep into the gas tank in the later rounds. At the end of the fight, Amil earned a win because he did slightly more damage in the final two rounds.
Amil deserves some credit for his performance. This was a really tough stylistic matchup for a striker, but he showed solid sweeps while threatening submissions. On the feet, he could not stand up for a second without Sonmez attempting a takedown. Still, he dealt with the matchup and beat the man he was fighting.
The biggest issue with Sonmez is that he is 33 years old. In one of the lower weight classes, that does not give him much time to work his way up the UFC ladder. If he is given the right opponent, he could use his toughness to beat opponents on the feet, but I doubt he will ever see the UFC rankings. That limited potential to reach the rankings pushes him to the bottom of this list.
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