Four more fighters earned UFC contracts last night on the eighth episode of Dana White’s Contender Series 5.
Main event winner Jonny Parsons is one of the new batch of official UFC fighters after he battled his way to a split decision victory over Solomon Renfro (29-28 x2, 28-29).
It was a closely fought encounter and Renfro got the better of it in the first round, managing to put Parsons down a couple of times, though his opponent quickly righted himself and kept fighting back. The second could have gone either way as they battled back-and-forth on the feet before Renfro secured a takedown late in the round, but in the third it was Parsons who had more left in the tank and got the better of the striking exchanges, which appeared to help him sway the judges in his favor.
In the co-main event Piera Rodriguez beat Valesca Machado on the scorecards (29-28 x3) to secure her spot on the roster, but it was another highly competitive fight in which Rodriguez had to battle hard on the feet and secure a few takedowns to ensure she edged out the decision win and maintained her unbeaten record.
Caio Borralho’s win was much more clear-cut as he secured a TKO victory over Jesse Murray just 1.41mins into the fight after initially hurting his opponent with a left hand and then landing a right hook to put him down, with follow-up ground-and-pound sealing the deal.
Also securing a quick finish to earn his UFC place was Armen Petrosyan, who rocked Kaloyan Kolev with heavy left and right hooks late in the first round, then sat him down with a kick to claim a KO victory at 4.27mins.
Check out all the Contenders Series results below.
Jonny Parsons def. Solomon Renfro by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Piera Rodriguez def. Valesca Machado by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Caio Borralho def. Jesse Murray by TKO at 1:41, R1
Armen Petrosyan def. Kaloyan Kolev by KO at 4:27, R1
Pedro Falcao def. James Barnes by TKO at 3:55, R3
