Yet again, The Dana White ‘s Contender Series episode 8 on Tuesday night gave the fans another enthralling episode. The latest edition of the UFC APEX in Las Vegas brought together four fighters who signed contracts and was also equally beneficial for two other fighters who were promised more tryouts in the future.
During the third episode of this season Dana White offered contracts with UFC to Andrey Pulyaev, Bogdan Grad, Marco Tulio, and Malcolm Wellmaker. Both fighters brought out their best performance thus making a great impression on the UFC president. That was not the climax of the show, and for more fun let me tell you readers what exactly happened next. Another interesting statement that White made was through his threat to ‘Fire’ one of the fighters and his promise for other talented fighters in the future.
Pulyaev’s Stellar Performance
In the night’s main event, Andrey Pulyaev defeated Liam Anderson in a surprising manner thus making a statement in his UFC debut. The 26-year-old Russian produced the best performance of the night, showing great qualities of kick boxing. Airing his tactics from word go, Pulyaev employed kicks, jabs and strong hooks that saw him dominate the match. While Anderson was able to take Pulyaev down and defend himself he failed to prove dominance in the stand up department allowing Pulyaev to earn a decision victory and a UFC contract.
The bout which became a war was held between Bogdan Grad and Michael Aswell that will be discussed for a long time. The bout had a flurry of punches thrown, the big pressure of Grad for much of the bout standing in stark contrast to the technical boxing of Aswell. During the fight both fighters sustained on the skin and each fighter was worn out and bloody. Finally in the third round which was stressful after grappling for three motions, Grad was awarded the match with split decision.
Tulio’s Spinning Kick Decides the Match up
Marco Tulio secured the match with an intervening display particularly in the last stretch against Matthieu Duclos. After getting a victory in earlier Contender Series 2023 and getting summoned to come back after training further, Tulio did not disappoint and returned with a vengeance. He came out aggressively, and after a intense 1st round Tulio delivered a spinning back kick to Duclos liver. The final blow left Duclos stunned, and a couple of more simultaneous punches earned Tulio his ticket to UFC.
Wellmaker’s Quick Knockout
Malcolm Wellmaker proved it in his fight against Adam Bramhald, where he made it certain that he was going to give a good account of himself, knocking Bramhald down in the first round. The unbeaten boxer from Augusta, GA used low kicks and a sharp jab with ease in the match. Thus Bramhald tried to focus on getting close to his opponent, he never stood the chance as a strong counter right hand knocked him out. In the cage, Wellmaker delivered one of the most spectacular knockout finishes in the organization’s history and thus earned his contract with the UFC and became one of the organization’s prospects.
Piccininni vs. Duffy
The first fight of the evening was a nail bitter between, Nick Piccininni and Jack Duffy. The match up featured Piccininni, who is a three times NCAA Division 1 All-American in wrestling and a wrestler in Duffy, who competed admirably against his opponent. As much as Duffy was tough with his approach and kept an active guard, the victory however went to Piccininni through grappling.
