No less than six fighters earned UFC contracts after last night’s Contender Series 7 Episode 8 show in Las Vegas.
They included main event winner Danny Barlow, who only needed 79 seconds to TKO Rahaem Forest. Barlow had left Forest on unsteady legs after a big left hook off the clinch and then continued to use his left hand to the head and then body to take the fight completely out of his opponent and force the ref to step in.
The co-main event didn’t produce a UFC contract after an illegal knee in the final round from Alexander Soldatkin led to Mario Piazzon winning by DQ.
However, a barnburner back-and-forth battle between Danny Silva and Angel Pacheco led to both fighters being handed a UFC contract, despite the fight that Silva emerged with a clear unanimous decision victory (30-27 x3). Silva definitely landed the bigger blows during the scrap, so his victory was well earned, but Pacheco fought him tooth-and-nail throughout and his gutsy performance clearly made an impact with the UFC brass.
A fight between Ernesta Kareckaite and Carli Judice before that was similarly action-packed, and like Silva vs. Pacheco broke a record for significant strikes landed as the two fighters threw everything but the kitchen sink at each other for the full 15 minutes. Karechkaite appeared to just be edging it though with her work rate and indeed did emerge with her hand raised, though only via a split-decision verdict (29-28 x2, 28-29).
And in the opening fight of the night, Vinicius Oliveira earned his contract more swiftly by despatching Hugo Madrigal mid-way through the opening round with a huge left hook that knocked him out cold.
See all the results below.
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Danny Barlow def. Rahaem Forest via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 1:19
Mario Piazzon def. Alexander Soldatkin via disqualification (illegal knee) – Round 3, 0:20
Danny Silva def. Angel Pacheco via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Ernesta Kareckaite def. Carli Judice via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Vinicius Oliveira def. Victor Hugo Madrigal via KO (punch) – Round 1, 3:02
