Dana White’s Contender Series 8 Episode 9 Results And Highlights

By
Ross Cole
-

Four out of five winners from last night’s 9th episode of Dana White’s Contender Series 8 earned UFC contracts last night in Las Vegas.

The most notable fight of the night was undoubtedly the main event due to the fact that the winner Artem Vakhitov had beaten Alex Pereira by majority decision in his final kickboxing fight back in 2021, just a few months before the star joined the UFC.

In fact that had been Vakhitov’s 2nd fight in a row with Pereira, having lost to him by split-decision earlier that year. And with that much history between them, fresh off his latest UFC 205lb title defense at the weekend, Pereira himself was in attendance in Las Vegas last night to watch his former rival attempt to win a place in the UFC.

And Vakhitov was able to do just that as he connected with a big right hand in the final minute of the first round that rocked Islem Masraf, before follow-up strike sunk him to the canvas for a TKO finish.

The 33-year-old Vakhitov’s performance before the finish had left Dana White with some doubts though, so he actually consulted with Pereira himself on whether to award his rival a UFC contract, and ‘Poatan’ gave him the green light. It seems like Vakhitov will have to earn his stripes against other UFC 205lb’ers before he’d be granted another showdown with Pereira though.

Kody Steele, Mario Pinto and Islam Dulatov also earned UFC contracts after delivering finishes via strikes in their fights, but Sean Gauci’s unanimous decision win over Anthony Drilich wasn’t enough for him to secure a spot on the roster.

Check out all the results and highlight clips below.

Artem Vakhitov def. Islem Masraf via TKO (punches) — R1, 4:23

Kody Steele def. Chasen Blair via TKO (punches) — R2, 4:07

Mario Pinto def. Luis Camacho via TKO (punches) — R1, 1:43

Islam Dulatov def. Vanilto Antunes via knockout (elbow) — R1, 2:44

Sean Gauci def. Anthony Drilich via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Ross Cole
Ross launched MMA Insight (previously FightOfTheNight.com) in 2009 as a way to channel his passion for the sport of mixed martial arts. He's since penned countless news stories and live fight reports along with dozens of feature articles as the lead writer for the site, reaching millions of fans in the process.