The 7th season of Dana White’s Contender Series came to a conclusion last night with five more fights being awarded UFC contracts.
Main event winner Ramon Taveras earned his contract after delivering a knockout finish just 29 seconds into his fight with Cortavious Romious.
The two fighters got right to work in this one trading heavy leather at close range, and it wasn’t long before a left hand from taveras put Romious down for a brief moment. He got right back up and continued the exchange, only to get clipped by a right hook that put him to one knee again for a split-second. Not learning his lesson, Romious went straight back into the fire-fight and was knocked out by a thudding left.
In the co-main event Andre Lima won a spot in the UFC fairly easily as his opponent Rickson Zenidim appeared stuck in reverse gear for the duration of the fight, leading to a unanimous decision victory.
Connor Matthews had to work harder for his UFC contract, but got the better of Jair Farias with a well-rounded performance to earn a unanimous decision victory.
The only fighter to win on the night and not earn a contract was Torrez Finney, who struggled on the feet against Yuri Panferov, but managed to slam his opponent to the mat in the 2nd round and secure a rear-naked choke finish. Dana White felt he still needed to work on his skills more before being given a spot on the roster though.
However, Marquel Mederos had no such issues as he won a contract via a TKO finish in the final minute of the opening round against Issa Isakov, perfectly timing a knee as his opponent ducked in for a takedown.
That was actually the 2nd big finish via a knee strike of the night, as Lucas Rocha had opened the show in style by landing one in a striking exchange early in the second round that sent his opponent Davi Bittencourt crashing face first onto the canvas for a KO stoppage win.
Check out all the Contender Series 7 episode 10 results below.
Ramon Taveras def. Cortavious Romious via KO (punches) – Round 1, 0:29
Andre Lima def. Rickson Zenidim via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Connor Matthews def. Jair Farias via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Torrez Finney def. Yuri Panferov via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 2:43
Marquel Mederos def. Issa Isakov via TKO (knee) – Round 1, 4:09
Lucas Rocha def. Davi Bittencourt via KO (knee) – Round 2, 0:18
