Contender Series 2023: Week 4

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

Prates vs. Ramirez
Carlos Prates, TKO, R2
Fear the Brazilian but Ramirez has Mormon power

Salvador vs. Oki
Bolaji Oki, TKO, R3
Salvador is a legit kickboxer but Oki looks pretty good this could be a war

Salvador vs. Oki
Dylan Salvador, TKO, R3
Wow, great fight this one ! Dylan Salvador is a very talented and experienced kickboxer from France, with a decent but not great career in Glory. What is really interesting about him transitioning to MMA is that while he is obviously a big threat on the feet, a lot of his wins are by way of submission. Complete fighter, eager to learn ! The guy is still relatively young and who knows what his ceiling can be. Will he "just" be a top 15 fighter à la Giga Chikadze (wich is not that bad), or will he reach the top like his fellow Glory fighters Adesanya and Pereira ? Hell, will he at least be able to win here, against a young talented prospect in Oki ?

Belgaroui vs. Silva
Marco Tulio Silva, TKO, R2
Belgaroui is a proper quality kickboxer striker vs the Chute Boxe striking and Silva looks in good shape as well... I have a feeling this could be a war... And could swing either which way

oki most likely wanted to become a football  (soccer (for america)) player. He's kicking pretty well now

Oki vs Salvador is one of my favorite matchups of the season. Wish both guys had separate matchups so they could both get a contract. Pretty high on both of them 

Carlos prates a has a win over Charles Oliveria, ;)

* Edited at 08.10.2023, 1:47 AM ET *

@Calfoth 

Not Charles Oliveira in UFC

@Murray101 

taking the piss lad 

@Calfoth 

not the true one lol

* Edited at 08.23.2023, 6:52 AM ET *

Salvador vs. Oki
Bolaji Oki, DEC
This is a close fight that should be fun. Dylan used to be a kickboxer at Glory who imo hasn´t transitioned completely well to MMA, but still shows improvements on every new fight like pulling some BJJ tricks. I am in the minority with this opinion as a lot of people like his transition to MMA so far. Oki is a really athletic boxer with good fundamentals. He is strong enough to apply good clinch and ground control even if he is not as technichal. This is a close. To me this is an even fight where I was going to pick Oki expecting him to be an underdog given Salvador´s credentials, but looking at the pick rate here in Tapology I see the lines may be switched. If Salvador wants to win, he will have to rely on his pressure, as we saw Oki struggle in that aspect with Melikyan. Oki´s striking defense isn´t the best so there is a chance Salvador finishes this earlier. Oki should rely on his fundamentals and his strength as he is a much better athlete than Salvador he should be able to control him, specially in the clinch. Regardless I hope the winner gets a contract and Dana doesn´t pull another Knutsson situation

Cole vs. Petersen
Thomas Petersen, TKO, R2
I am a fan of Petersen, but he is a guy that should go through DWCS. He is mostly a wrestler, but he is decent enough in the striking. His only loss is against Waldo, who isn´t a bad UFC Heavyweight. In fact he was beating Waldo Imo until gassing in the third, which isn´t terrible for a heavyweight. Cole is more of a brawler who should be fighting at a much lower weight, he has a good wingspan and is a tough dude but that´s about it. He gasses much more than Petersen, which isn´t ideal against a wrestler. This should be a fight that Petersen takes to the ground asap and eventually find a finish via G&P

Cuamba vs. Vogel
Mateo Vogel, TKO, R2
This is an interesting fight with a clash of styles. Vogel has a beautiful wrestling style where he is always looking for the finish. His striking is good enough which is helped by a really solid chin. He should still improve the striking defense but that´s something good to have. Cuamba has a wrestling background which may not be as pretty, but his striking is really fast and solid, which is where i see the advantage for him even if he doesn´t have a lot of power. I am leaning Vogel because I trust his tools more, as he can set up the takedowns dealing with Cuamba´s superior striking and control the fight there. I don´t think Cuamba will be available to reverse the positions and there is a chance he eventually gasses. No issues there for Vogel as he could go for 10 rounds of wrestling. If Cuamba wants the win he needs to keep the fight on the feet and not rely on fighting of his back as he has done in previous fights

Belgaroui vs. Silva
Marco Tulio Silva, TKO, R2
Kinda sucks for Silva that Woodburn got pulled out to fight Nickal, he had an easy fight before and now he faces a difficult matchup. Tulio is decent everywhere, fundamentally sound on the feet but nothing special, same situation on the ground where has a few valuable tools (specially at middleweight) but he isn´t gread neither in wrestling or BJJ. On the other hand, Belgaroui is a ex-Glory Kickboxer who fought Adesanya and Poatan, training in currently with the latter. His transition to MMA hasn´t gone really well facing a lot of trouble with TDD and ground control. He is still a really decent kickboxer who will provide a challenge on the feet. This is MMA tho and I think Tulio has the tools to find the finish at some point in the fight, but Belgaroui finding the KO is something that could absolutely happen

Prates vs. Ramirez
Carlos Prates, TKO, R2
This should be a fun striking duel, Prates is an absolutely vicious muay thai fighter while Ramirez carries a lot of power too. Mitch should have the wrestling advantage, but with Prates high level TDD I don´t think he will be able to take the fight there. At the end, the best striker will win, and there aren´t many better guys than Prates in the division

Tulio Silva vs Belgaroui Belgaroui KO RD 2
This is a fun one. However, I’m not really sold on silva. You see chute boxe as his team and would expect him to be this violent brawler, but hes really not. Sure, he has a bunch of kos but its not like he comes hot out the gate swinging with everything. He can brawl when he wants but most of the time hes just out there striking. He pretty much just walks you down looking for bombs to throw. What I really dislike about his striking is that he often times throws a lot of single shots. Doesnt use many combinations and sometimes comes off as predictable. He will also throw a lot of spinning **** which gets pretty easy to predict at times. The best quality of these chute boxe guys is that they will use their insane cardio to push a pace and land whatever shots they can, even if they are outclassed by their opponents. However, Im not sure if tulio has that skill. Tbf, we havent seen him fight someone legit yet, BUT, his fights have all been pretty slow paced so makes me wonder. Silva also inherits a lot of bad qualities that are present in most chute boxe guys. For starters, he is there to be hit. Most of these chute boxe guys have absurd chins, silva does not. Its not like he cant take a punch, but he has been put out cold before and gets hit a lot. Another quality is that he will sometimes give away moments of the fight by doing dumb ****. For tulio, its things like the spinning attacks. Silva’s grappling is also not that good. He does sometimes mix in takedowns but every time i see him try to defend he gets taken down easily. The thing i find weirdest is his cardio actually seems pretty bad. This is strange because I almost never see chute boxe guys get tired. Silva gassed bad in the third round against pedro oliviera. Hes also getting a very high level striker in yousri belgaroui. Yousri is yet another kickboxer, this time with a win over poatan & a spil decision loss to izzy. His record is bad on paper but honestly, i think he could be 7-0. The Sami fight really wasnt that close. The osselli fight was really close but i thought yousri won rounds 2-3. The fight was very close tho as yousri got hit a lot and taken down. He was able to reverse the positions however. As you would expect, yousri’s striking is really good. He is 6”5 and uses his size very well. I really love his footwork, he’s so good at moving away from punches and he almost never gets hit. I think yousri actually has a lot of talent but he is still very green. There are two main things i dislike. First, he can’t grapple that well. Granted, he has been able to get up every time he gets taken down and has shown good sub defense. He still does do some really bad things like gives up his back so easily. The second problem I have is that he doesnt like pressure that much. Pressure was the main reason he lost to osselli. It should be noted that for his past two fights Yousri has been training at texiera mma. While he does have the flaws that I mentioned, they are things that he can fix. On the feet yousri is way better than tulio but, tulio being a chute boxe guy, he can make it ugly very easily. Although its not good, tulio at least knows how to use takedowns & he will also throw gnp, which I havent seen yousri face yet. I think this is a close fight but i lean yousri. Would not be surprised at all if tulio wins tho.

Prates vs Ramirez Prates KO RD 1 
Prates is a very good dwcs candidate but I still find it so odd that they chose ramirez of all people to be his opponent. Ramirez has a nice record but his tape is not all that impressive. HE has looked better but the most concerning thing I saw was his fight against kani correa. Decisioning a 3-5 fighter is always concerning to me but watching that fight was even worse. He just looked so lethargic in there. His strikes you could see coming from a mile away & he was getting hit a good amount in there. Even his takedowns were super telegraphed and his opponent was even able to stand back up a few times. It was just a super low level performance. Ramirez looked gassed after round 1 qand even got stunned by some shots from this can. HE was able to win the fight by lan-n-pray wrestling with little to no damage. Just a terrible, low level performance all around against a literal tomato can.  Ramirez has definitely improved since that fight but he still doesnt look ufc level at all to me. Even his last fight was much closer than it should've been & there was a chance mitch could’ve lost the fight if it wasn't for holloway injuring his leg due to kicks. I just dont know what hes good at. Mitch is mostly a striker but nothing flashy. He has a couple cool kos but doesnt seem to hit that hard. His boxing is decent but what I hate is the lack of head movement. Ramirez keeps his head on the center line & leaves his chin out there in every striking engagement. HIs striking also just doesnt wow me at all. He does have wrestling that he mixes in, but that too is just basic. He lies on you doing minimal damage and its pretty easy to get back up. Hes also so unbelievably slow in there; watching him strike or shoot tds its like hes fighting in slow motion. Finally, Mitch actually gets hit quite a bit. He leaves himself open for counters and as I said earlier, he has poor head movement & doesnt protect his chin well. Now prates is someone I really like; dude is a knockout machine. Prates comes from a muay thai/K-1 background. What I really like about his striking is the accuracy and speed with which he throws. This, combined with his natural power make for some deadly strikes. Prates is very lanky and technical. He uses his range and takes his time to make his reads. Despite all these knockouts on his record, prates doesnt brawl at all. I think ramirez is the perfect style for prates to look good; ramirez is gonna stand with him, and is so slow and telegraphed that I think prates will find the kill shot easily. Ramirez could wrestle as that has been Prates’s achilles heel his entire career but Ramirez hasnt shown me much to be worried about on the ground. And I just dont see how ramirez wins on the feet. He’s too slow and gets hit too mu

Salvador vs Oki  Salvador SUB RD 3
Both these guys come from kickboxing backgrounds so we should get an awesome striking match. Oki is a very patient striker. He isnt super high volume, instead picking his shots carefully. Oki is a very good natural athlete, you can see it in the way he moves around the cage & in things like his feints and his speed. He fights with a fast twitch style; no wasted movements and is very quick when slipping punches & firing back. However, I have a few gripes with oki. First, is the wrestling; now, oki has improved it since his debut but he still doesnt have great takedown defense. He will wrestle offensively sometimes but, its just basic technique & even then he still makes a lot of mistakes. Salvador doesnt have great defense either but he does have bjj, so i think should oki wrestle, salvador will be able to get up or even sweep/sub him. My other issue is his level of competition. Oki is fighting what hes given but its still not good competition; mostly old journeyman or debutants. His best win is over nair melikyan. While it looks like a crazy win on paper, melikyan has an incredibly padded record. He is a good and aggressive kickboxer for one round before his cardio fails him and he gasses out. While oki did beat him, he showed a few concerning things to me. For one, he slowed down badly as the fight went on. He wasnt death gassed but you could clearly see he wasnt moving the same. Because his defense is reliant on head movement, as oki got tired that movement started to go away. It also showed oki struggles when he isnt the one leading the dance, as he prefers a slow pace. Now salvador is a prospect I really like. Coming from a background in Muay Thai/Kickboxing, salvador is 52-17-3 and has wins over Giga and sittichai. Not only is salvador a great striker but he has really creative grappling. Its quite rare to see someone who compete at such a high level in Muay Thai have competent skills on the mat. Now, salvador isnt perfect on the ground but he has shown that he knows what hes doing. He has pretty good hips & because of his muay thai background he has good trips in the clinch. When he does get taken down he is always looking for ways to get back up. I have seen him use kimura sweeps and other bjj techniques to get back on top. Enough about his grappling tho, his striking is where he is best. Salvador swings hard, killer intentions on every shot. He uses all his limbs and mixes up his striking everywhere. He attacks the body and head a lot; as has brutal leg kicks which he throws with barely any telegraph.He loves to throw spinning kicks and flying knees as well. What I also like a lot about dylan is that he has transitioned well to mma. I already said he is comfortable striking & has a ground game but he fights with a lot of confidence for only having 6 fights. Hes been in there with way more experienced guys and looked awesome. In this matchup, I think salvador is the better striker; he has way higher output and isnt scared to mix in grappling. Oki is very powerful and fast but he doesnt do that well when he isnt the one advancing. And as we’ve seen, salvador walks his opponents down every fight. Neither have good tdd so I could see oki getting a takedown but, his control and bjj are lacking so I think salvador can find his way out. Salvador also has pretty crazy cardio where we saw when oki isnt fighting at his pace he does slow down. 
Cole vs Petersen Peterson KO RD 1
I can understand why petersen gets a shot but chandler cole? Very confusing to me. Cole isnt even bellator/pfl level let alone ufc level so no idea why hes getting a shot. One thing that really surprises me about cole is how quick he is. One look at the guy & he looks insanely out of shape and obese. Despite this, he is actually super agile and pretty fast for a heavyweight. He will throw some head kicks which is another thing you dont see often from hws and he has some wrestling. However, this is where the good qualities end. Cole’s opposition is abysmal; hes fighting jobbers who go down after absorbing one clean punch & has rarely ever left the first round. Everyone hes fought in his career with a pulse has dispatched him with ease. As far as heavyweights go, peterson is one of the best prospects. That being said, he is still far from perfect. Petersen comes from a wrestling background and has destroyed almost everyone hes fought. His lone loss came to waldo & in that fight he was winning until he wasnt. He controlled the majority of the fight by landing huge shots, taking waldo down, and nuetralizing him against the fence. Petersen gassed out around the 12 minute mark but he was winning before that. Petersen isnt really a great striker but he throws fast & very hard. His technique is good but he runs with his chin up and gets hit a ton. The mogenburg fight especially was concerning to me; he won handedly but took a lot of shots from a really bad fighter. I dont think his wrestling is elite but for a heavyweight its pretty damn good; I mean theres not many heavyweights that know the difference between a double and single leg. His control is nothing special imo but the lower end of heavyweight (and honestly a lot at the top) have no idea how to wrestle so petersen is already at and advantage. I think he should handle cole pretty easily but I wouldnt be shocked if petersen takes a few hits along the way. Cole is bad but he is deceptively fast for how big he is so I could see him having moments. However, once petersen starts wrestling or this fight leaves the first, then cole will gas out and get finished. 



Cuamba vs Vogel  Cuamba KO RD 2
I was not aware of cuamba before this season but wow was I impressed with what I saw. Cuamba is only 23 and trains at a great gym in Xtreme Couture. Cuamba is so good everywhere. He is so quick yet doesnt waste any movements. His striking is sharp & clean kickboxing. He is so good at moving in and out of the pocket when striking & also has great head movement. He throws out a ton of feints and then snipes you with combinations. Cuamba can also wrestle very well too. He has great technique and is always mixing in takedown feints with his striking. Really, timmy hasnt given me anything to be worried about on tape. Hes winning these fights & winning dominantly at that. In his lone loss, cuamba fought ivan tena. The reason he lost that fight was from wrestling. From the start to the end, cuamba was shooting takedown after takedown & getting pummled with shots until he got caught in a choke and tapped. He has totally changed his game up since that loss & likes to strike much more now. I actually really like that, because it shows he wanted to fix his striking so that he has a backup. To top it off, he’s still so young and just looks better and better each fight. Vogel is someone i know pretty well. The first fight I ever saw of his was against garrett armfield. In that fight, he lost 95% of the fight, until armfield made one small error and got choked. Before that, vogel lost a 10-7 round (10-8 with a deduction for not keeping his mouthpiece in). However, that was at 135 where he was cutting a lot of weight. Since a loss to da’mon blackshear, he has permanently switched to 145 and has looked much better. Since moving up, he is 3-0 having gone 5 rounds and picked up two title defenses along the way. He had his moments at 135 but he was simply too chinny at the weight class. Vogel’s grappling is very impressive to me. He has such an active ground game & is always throwing wild stuff up on the ground. He is one of the few fighters who is actually very effective of off their backs; while he does lose moments playing guard he will never waste an entire round down there & always finds a way to get up. He constantly throws up all kinds of submission attempts & not your usual triangle or armabr setups; he will attack kimura’s, throw up inverted triangles, heel hooks, kneebars, etc. Hes also just so slick on the fat; the transitions are all super fast and unexpected. He also can do this for 5 rounds no problem & seems to have an endless gas tank (15+ sub attempts in his fight vs oullet!). What I dont like about this style is that vogel can be taken down very easily and will also get reversed pretty easily as well. The oullet fight ended up being very close because he would willingly play bjj off his back & took a beating. Despite his improvements, vogel still has poor standup, specifically his defense. He is comfortable on the feet but very hittable and he still gets rocked almost every fight. ON the feet i think its timmy all day. Where this gets interesting is the grappling. I don’t imagine timmy wants to wrestle vogel but, should he engage i think he will avoid the sub attempts. ON the feet, I think its cuamba pretty significantly. THis is a great fight and also a really close one but im leaning cumaba here

Such an interesting fight. I can't wait to see how they matchup. But it's sad that only 1 of them can get signed, they both should be in the UFC, and they're arguably the 2 best fighters on the whole 2023 season of DWCS (or at least top 5)

Prates with the more technical and versatile standup, incredible off of his back, good good takedown defense, great straight punches, powerful kicks, dangerous knees,... Ramirez has a good fight IQ, very precised and powerful hands, very solid wrestling, durable chin, ...

This fight can literally go either way, it just depends on what Mitch's gameplan is and how he executes it. Ramirez's keys to victory, to possibly get a TKO after overwhelming Prates:

*Mitch starts quickly with hard legkicks before closing the distance every time he's at kicking distance.
*Goes forward constantly and corrals his opponent.
*Mixes some takedowns up avoiding getting hit with a knee and doing so close to the cage cause Prates is super crafty off of his back 
*Look out for the knees to the face

Prates' keys to victory: 

*Obviously keep himself at kicking range
*Use front kicks, specially with his right leg so avoids getting kicked by Ramirez
*Legkicks, but hidden with his hands very well cause Ramirez might be able to catch it or check it, possibly countering with a takedown
*Time a knee to the face if Ramirez gets consistent with the motion forward or volume with hands.
*Lure Mitch into a grappling exchange in the middle of the cage where he could work a submission (triangle from bottom, armbar, possible even a guillotine even against the cage from the clinch position since he has long arms) 

* Edited at 08.24.2023, 8:49 PM ET *

Salvador vs. Oki
Bolaji Oki, TKO, R2
I see Salvador winning the start but oki landing a shot that’s wins the fight but won’t get a contract

Cole vs. Petersen
Thomas Petersen, TKO, R1
Based offf tendencies Peterson should breeze threw cole, Paterson having only one fight go to the second round with all 7 wins by ko/Tko cole on the other hand has a similar win ratio but only has lost via first round ko I see chandler throwing wild quick and getting caught in the first

Cuamba vs. Vogel
Mateo Vogel, SUB, R2
Had my eyes on Vogel kid is very talented cuamba is good but I believe he gets out worked on the ground and opens himself for a submission

Belgaroui vs. Silva
Marco Tulio Silva, TKO, R1
Silva runs threw Belgaroui, Belgaroui doesn’t use his height to the advantage he could Silva will hurt him quick and finish the fight with a referee stoppage

Prates vs. Ramirez
Carlos Prates, DEC
Mitch is so talented great prospect but prates so much better in the striking realm, but I also see prates gassing hard could go either way tbh

Salvador vs. Oki
Dylan Salvador, TKO, R1
Oki has fought nobody and Salvador has a solid win, as well as fights outside of mma with Giga and ************* Buakaw?? Salvador quick murder

Cole vs. Petersen
Thomas Petersen, DEC
WOW neither guy has beat anyone, Petersen wins I guess I doubt either guy becomes anything in the UFC

Cuamba vs. Vogel
Mateo Vogel, SUB, R2
Vogel with better opponents, Cuamba has Twilight in his nickname? Vogel please take him out

Belgaroui vs. Silva
Marco Tulio Silva, SUB, R1
Yousri is the next "guy that fought Alex Pereira" to come into UFC, MTS was originally fighting Val Woodburn who fought Bo Nickal, which probably would've been a better matchup I think MTS easily subs him or bludgeons him on the ground

Prates vs. Ramirez
Carlos Prates, TKO, R1
Prates is one of the best Brazillian welterweights outside the UFC, I think he washes Ramirez but Mitch I guess could surprise me

i understand you feel the need to stick up for your mitch ramirez because you're both mexican but i'm sorry to break it to you, prates is going to dominate him

Salvador vs. Oki
Dylan Salvador, TKO, R2
Seems like Oki's record is slightly padded 8-13 & 17-29 doesn't look very good. Granted he did beat a 13-0 right after fighting an 0-0 guy.

Cole vs. Petersen
Thomas Petersen, TKO, R1
Going with Petersen bc Cole definitely has a padded record.

Belgaroui vs. Silva
Yousri Belgaroui, TKO, R2
Very excited to see what Belgaroui looks like on Contender Series after training with Glover and the crew!

@WastelandWanderer 

I feel you 100%! I am definitely expecting a war, I can see either fighter getting the win...I just love when it's Contender Series season...we've been getting blessed with UFC event after event, then a couple days later we get Contender, and UFC 293 is almost upon us! I'm also extra happy because I hit an 11 leg parlay this past event and made some bank lol