Dana White’s Contender Series lineups announced for week 1 and week 3 ahead of Aug. 8 debut
The full lineups for Dana White’s Contender Series during week 1 and week 3 for season 7 have now been announced with a slight change to the debut event on Aug. 8.
Over the past few years, The Contender Series has served as a launching pad for numerous UFC careers with the roster growing exponentially after almost every single episode. Ex-UFC light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill got his start on The Contender Series as well as Sean O’Malley, who will seek to claim gold in his upcoming bantamweight title fight at UFC 292 in Boston.
As far as the upcoming cards, the first week saw a slight change in the opening bout with Kevin Borjas now slated to face off with Victor Dias after he was originally matched up against Rickson Zenidim.
Here’s the full lineup for first week of The Contender Series with an earlier start time at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN+
Middleweight: Cesar Almeida vs. Lucas Fernando
Lightweight: Tom Nolan vs. Bogdan Grad
Heavyweight: Kevin Szaflarski vs. Caio Machado
Bantamweight: Payton Talbott vs. Junior Cortez
Flyweight: Victor Dias vs. Kevin Borjas
The full lineup for The Contender Series in week 3 was also announced during Saturday’s UFC 291 broadcast with that card set to take place on Aug. 22.
Here’s the lineup for that card, which will air at the normal time 8 p.m. ET on ESPN+
Middleweight: Eli Aronov vs. Zach Reese
Welterweight: Kaik Brito vs. Oban Elliott
Women’s Strawweight: Isis Verbeek vs. Josefine Knutsson
Featherweight: Luis Paluelo vs. Robbie King
Flyweight: Felipe Dos Santos vs. Luciano Pereira