Contender Series 2023: Week 3

The official Tapology discussion thread for the event!

Pajuelo vs. Harila
Tobias Harila, TKO, R1
SWEDEN STAND UP!!

Pajuelo vs. Harila
Tobias Harila, TKO, R1
The Swedish Psycho! UFC Sweden all the way, take back the streets

Pajuelo vs. Harila
Tobias Harila, TKO, R3
🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪yesssssssssssss

Pajuelo vs. Harila
Tobias Harila, TKO, R2
CW bias

Verbeek vs. Knutsson
Josefine Knutsson, DEC
thank you dana white. get more european talent in. beautiful to see

Verbeek vs. Knutsson
Isis Verbeek, DEC
Verbeek has some dangerous knees to the body in the clinch

Pajuelo vs. Harila
Tobias Harila, TKO
Normally, I'd be against picking someone from Cage Warriors......This time is an exception. Why? Because Peru

Verbeek vs. Knutsson
Josefine Knutsson, DEC
I feel more comfortable with this pick. Don't ask why.......Because I don't know either TBH

Cháirez vs. dos Santos
Felipe dos Santos, DEC
I like what I'm seeing from this Dos Santos kid. He's young and has solid wins. Chairez isn't bad either, and is quite the show fighter.....buuuuttt really, that's about it. This is an easy win.

* Edited at 05.28.2023, 9:44 PM ET *

Fight between Harila and Pajuelo is off unfortunately...Harila  has visa issues entering the US and will likely return to Cage Warriors. (https://twitter.com/MatiasAndresMMA/status/1663068363952902144)

Verbeek vs. Knutsson
Josefine Knutsson, DEC
I think Verbeek is the bedfellow and lover of Bigi Boi Rozenstruik she must prove her commitment to Bigi Boi through brave deeds in the octagon or leave Suriname never to return....

Cháirez vs. dos Santos
Felipe dos Santos, DEC
The Brazilians are too good most of the time and Chute Box so you know he has done hard sparring I wonder how much mileage the wheels can come off suddenly after years of hard sparring and fights but I have a feeling he could be good

Aronov vs. Reese
Eli Aronov, DEC
They should sign Aronov the UFC needs more Fighting Jews, and that Ashmouz is a proper beast, I want to see UFC Israel someday, MMA is taking a while to develop, but they are proven elites in other styles especially judo, and have taken 12 wrestling worlds medals, so you can see their ability

* Edited at 06.02.2023, 12:11 AM ET *

Elliott vs Brito is on this card

Ring vs. Pajuelo
Luis Pajuelo, TKO, R1
Saw this man in his only loss. What an amazing warrior and entertaining fighter! This USA fan is rooting for you

Ring vs. Pajuelo
Robbie Ring, SUB, R2
Robbie Ring is on his own level, Luis is a tough fighter but not technical enough Robbie.

Aronov vs. Reese
Eli Aronov, TKO, R2
Interesting fight between two guys who may be a bit green but have a lot of potential. Aronov is a really powerful wrestler who can dominate much bigger guys, while Reese is an exciting striker with a lot of tools both on the feet and the ground. A problem with Aronov is cardio, but I don´t think this will be a big factor, as even if the fight reaches the later rounds I don´t expect Reese´s to be much better. This is just a guess as he has never left the first round as a pro. At the end, the level of competition is the key diference for me. I was really impressed with the way Aronov beat Ksiazkiewicz who is a really solid regional fighter. Meanwhile Zach Reese hasn´t faced someone nearly as good. I expect Aronov to take the fight to the ground and control the fight there and even if Reese will be active on his back, Aronov´s power and strength will be too much

Elliott vs. Brito
Kaik Brito, TKO, R3
Good fight between two deserving guys this is what DWCS is all about. I was really impressed watching tape on Brito he seems like a really complete fighter who has been constantly evolving his game, given his youth, he already has a lot of experience. Elliott is a wrestler grinder with cardio for days which can provide a few things on the feet too. To implement this gameplan, Elliot will need to proof he has an extra gear from what he have seen at Cage Warriors as Brito has decent TDD but specially some of the best ground defense Elliott have faced. On the striking, Brito is a few steps above Elliott and I think he can find the finish there later in the fight

Verbeek vs. Knutsson
Josefine Knutsson, DEC
If you want to get excited about a WMMA prospect, JKL is your girl, a high level kickboxer whose game has translated to MMA as proven by her last fight with Jacinta Austin where she survive despite Austin making it ugly. Verbeek is a really good kickboxer too but it has not translated to MMA as well. Even in the kickboxing department I think JKL is better, so she should win this with relative ease

Ring vs. Pajuelo
Robbie Ring, SUB, R1
At first I was really excited when it was announced that Pajuelo would face Harila as it would have been an absolute banger, instead Pajuelo now has a nightmare matchup. Pajuelo is a brawler and thrives in those kind of fights, as his ground game is really limited. This is the oposite of what Ring will do as he will go straight to the ground and try to finish as early as posible via one of his the large belt of chokes he has. Ring is still green and could have a really high potential, so how much success he will have in the UFC is an unknown for me, but this is a fight where he should be able to implement his game plan unless Pajuelo can pull a surprised KO.

Pereira vs. dos Santos
Felipe dos Santos, DEC
Absolute banger between two young green strikers, expect fireworks on this one. Luciano is more focused in power shots while dos Santos looks for volume. I am picking dos Santos to win here as he has proven to be more durable and polish, while also having some tools in the ground in case he gets dropped

Robbie Ring could be a future top 15 guy especially if he goes down to 35. Giving up a little bit of size at 45

Aronov vs Reese

Aronov KO RD 2
This is an awesome fight and also a tricky one to call. Reese’s pro career has been very short but he has looked incredible so far. Reese is a very tall and long middleweight with powerful striking and explosive wrestling. Reese hits really hard, putting everything he has into each strike & i especially like his knees. Since he is so tall, he is able to throw them up without much telegraph & he is able to hit the head very easily. Reese likes to grapple a fair bit too; I was surprised how explosive he is with his takedowns. He is clearly very strong and also has shown good grappling, with two of his finishes coming from mount/punches from the back. Reese also showed he has slick chokes in his fight with aaron phillips; phillips took him down and reese was able to sneak his arms under and choke him unconscious. Now, Reese looks great on tape but I do have a few concerns. For starters, his head movement. Reese does not move his head at all and while he hasnt been hit yet, should he win, he will have to fix that soon or he is bound to get koed. Yes, hes big and super aggressive but a good striker will be able to capitalize on this. The second thing I dont like is his competition. Reese has annihilated everyone hes fought but at the same time he has fought really bad fighters. His opponents have a combined record of 12-14. So while he is dominating fights we havent seen him tested at all. Similarly, we havent seen what he looks like past 6 minutes. Judging by the quick finishes and the high pace he sets, I am going to assume his cardio is not the best. Aronov is an interesting prospect. I am always skeptical of fighters from israel & while aronov’s old tape is really bad, he just looked so damn good against the iron pol. In that fight, he took mariusz down and beat him up with gnp until he found a submission. The announcers said aronov was preparing for nationals in greco roman & freestyle wrestling before that fight & he clearly showed he is a high level wrestler. He is also the shorter guy in this matchup, which will help for his style of wrestling. He is still gonna struggle with the length of reese and suffer badly if this stays on the feet. While aronov is a great wrestler, his striking is terrible. He runs forward into every exchange with his chin up in the air. His technique is alright, but all the good work he does on the feet gets erased because he is a liability. Reese doesnt move his head either but at least he is very tall, Aronov is small for 185. Aronov’s old tape is also really bad, his cardio looks poor and his striking was even worse than it is now. However, that was years ago & when he was training in Israel; he has been training at XC for this fight. This fight reminds me of a lower level version of almeida vs sabatini from a few months ago; it's hard to call because each guy has a very strong advantage & disadvantage in this fight, yet whoever wins will win this fight dominantly. Its either going to be Reese by an early ko, or Aronov by a late ko/sub.

Elliott vs Brito
 Brito KO RD 1

This is going to be a banger for as long as it lasts. Ufc is pitting two strikers who love to throw down & i think they are gonna do just that until someone gets ktfo. Oban is a kickboxer and doesnt shy away from a brawl. He has pretty fast leg kicks and clean boxing. Oban get hit a LOT. Hes very susceptible to being jabbed and he tends to drop his hands a lot during striking exchanges. Some good things about him is that he can crack and has pretty good cardio; never seems to slow down, constantly mixes in wrestling, and always fighting at a high clip. However, I find his style to be very low level. Like I said earlier, he is incredibly hittable and he also allows himself to get backed up against the fence too much. His wrestling is solid. He does have some decent offensive wrestling but his takedown defense is poor. He is strong when he gets on top but you also have to factor in hes facing guys who can't wrestle very well. Over time it has improved a great deal but I wonder what will happen when he faces someone who can wrestle at the ufc level. Despite his flaws, I do think he is decent. Now Brito, I really like. This guys hands are FAST. He hits like a truck too. I love his movement; he is always moving in and out very quickly and his footwork is great. He is able to move around and trick his opponents by getting them to move forward and countering with hard shots. While he is fast Brito also possesses natural power & he has a brutal highlight reel. I love his boxing, especially his countering ability. He also throws some nasty body kicks too. One hole in Brito’s game is his wrestling. Oban is a pretty decent wrestler & wrestles quite frequently in his fights, so Brito will have to be on point. I really thought Brito's loss to knidze was a bad robbery. He "lost" because he did get wrestled but he did so much damage on the feet and knidze did nothing with his control. However, it shows brito has holes in his wrestling. I gotta say, Brito looked very good in his last fight. He still did get taken down a ton, but he did a much better job of getting back to his feet. And his power was on full display, I counted 6 knockdowns in that fight. On the feet, I give the advantage to brito by a pretty decent margin. Oban is a good boxer but as I said, he gets hit sooo much. If brito lands one of his bombs on Oban’s chin I think he could go out. I also dont like how oban allows himself to get backed up against the cage so much, I think brito’s forward pressure will be an issue for him. Overall, I think this fight is pretty close. Oban has a big wrestling advantage but the power and striking goes to brito.

Verbeek vs Knutsson 

Knutsson DEC
This is actually a very good womens fight right here. Two prospects who are not only solid, but come from high level striking backgrounds. Isis was a former kickboxer who fought for glory, amassing a record of 41-8. Knutsson comes from muay thai and has a record of 27-5 where she was ranked in the p4p top 10 and picked up wins over p4p greats like kana moramoto and janet todd. Isis has put on some incredibly entertaining fights so far. For starters, she is really quick. When she lets her hands go you can see the speed and she also moves around very quickly. One thing that really stands out is her kicks. Theres almost no telegraph to them and they are so quick. She fires them to all parts of the body as well. While she has very nice kicks, her boxing is lacking. Her hands arent terrible, but she doesnt use them nearly as much as i would like. She doesnt really jab or use her hands to pick you apart, instead relying on her kicks and counter punching. Her lack of boxing was very evident in her last fight. Now, she fought a solid opponent but all her striking holes showed themselves in this fight. At distance, her hands looked very bad; because she doesnt jab, she was getting beat to the punch in every distance exchange. She was still able to land punches, but you could see she was not as comfortable as she usually is. Her defense also looked really bad in that fight. She had to rely on her kicks and clinch work to win the fight.  What I also like a lot is isis comes to throw down. She does start out patient, but once she finds her range she comes to fight. She hits really hard and loves to throw knees as well. I also think her footwork is phenomenal for wmma. She does have an issue of cage awareness; she does tend to get backed up to the cage a lot, but she does move around very well and it helps her to get out of the way of shots. The biggest problem with her game is the wrestling. Being a striker, her ground game is not good. Being at ATT, you would expect it to at least improve inbetween fights, but she still gets taken down very easily and hasnt shown she can wrestle yet. Knutsson is someone im very high on. Id go as far as to say shes one of the best wmma prospects out there. Not only does she come from an elite striking background but she also trains at a top level gym in allstars. As a result of this, she has a very well rounded mma game. Her striking looks soooo good in mma. She sees everything coming defensively and her hands are super sharp. She has been able to pick apart eevreyone shes fought. Its not perfect yet, but her grappling has looked really sharp. Tdd has been solid and she has shown good awareness in grappling exhcnages and strong hips. As good as I think Knutsson is, her last two fights have been stinkers. The seo fight wasnt totally her fault since all seo did was run away, but knutsson handled her easily (albeit via a boring performance but still). Her fight vs jacinta austin was also very close but I did think she got the win. I was a little shocked it was close, but austin showed me a lot more improvements from her last fight. What this fight comes down to is who is the better striker & i think thats knutsson. Her muay thai is just so good. I think her grappling will make a big difference too. She is very strong in the clinch. So is isis, but isis is used to striking in the clinch where knutsson understands things like over/underhooks and will use takedowns if necessary. I expect her to win this and do greata things in the ufc. Very good prospect.

Periera vs dos Santos

Dos santos KO RD 2

Absolutely love this fight. Both are green but both only know how to have slugfests. Lipe detona is your average chute boxe fighter. Always brawls, uses all of his limbs to hurt you, insane cardio, insane pace, insane chin, etc. OF course, hes not on the level of a do bronx or a nascimento but he is decent. Although he is undefeated, he has had a lot of close fights on the regionals. These fights arent robberies but theyre just close fights cuz dos santos is not scared to take a punch to give one. He is a really tall flyweight and keeps the pressure on at all times. He really loves front kicks and knees as well. His wrestling is trash but i really like his bjj. He wont accept bottom position and is very explosive from the bottom. Meaning when hes not throwing subs up he is trying his hardest to scramble out on top or get up. What i like the most about him is he keeps marching forward and throwing regardless of weather his opponent is better than him or not. Lipe is a very fun action fighter but something is separating him from being on the same level as his teammates. He gets hit way too much and his wrestling is very bad. He is super explosive which is a good and bad thing. Its good because it makes it hard to get offense off, but its also bad because he will do things like slip off a kick or get taken down off a spin. For periera im very annoyed; there used to be footage of some of his other fights, but now all you can find is his most recent fight, which was a dq. From what i can remember, this guy is strong and rushes at you throwing bombs. Oh his record you see a lot of cans then a M-DEC and a dq to the same guy. Thats a bad look cuz it shows hes can crushing and on paper, struggling with real comp. However, from what i remember of the first fight, he was winning pretty clearly & it was not a controversial decision. Then in the rematch he dominated every second and it ended in a dq which ziller milked. If you watch the replay, it didnt even look illegal so in my eyes hes 14-0. From the little tape ive seen, i can see this kid hits really really hard for the divbison. He is not technical tho, he swings full force bombs but doesnt really set thigns up and is there to get hit. As with all south american prospects who arent brazilian, i am very suspect of their wrestling. Again, from the limited tape ive seen, periera doesnt appear to be a good wrestler, but he has good hips and being so short he has a low center of gravity, making it hard to take him down. We’ve never seen it tested tho so its still a mystery. Im gonna pick dos santos because he has actually been tested and has more experience, but he is not a totally safe pick. 

Pajuelo vs Ring 

Ring SUB RD 1

I don't like this fight at all; two short notice guys who are only on due to cancellations. Pajuelo might be one of the lowest level guys on this season. Its honestly hard to describe how bad he is. Hes a brawler who seems to hit decently hard, but his striking is awful. Hes low volume, really hittable, strikes with his chin up, head never moves, very poor footwork, and he is sooooo square. Just watching the way he strikes you can see this guy isnt close to ufc level. He also cannot grapple at all, and is now facing a grappler so im sure hes gonna get smoked. Im really annoyed harila is out because this fight wouldve been white vs valdez levels of brawling. Pajuelo pretty much fights the same way as harila just at a much lower level; he just marches you down and pushes a pace. I will say, this guy is really fun to watch but he is just simply not ufc level. Im not totally sure ring is either, but from the tape ive seen i know he can grapple and I think thats really all he needs. At least I think. Robbie is extremely untested; he has 1 win over a guy with a winning record, and that guy is jacob kilburn who is one of the worst ufc fighters ever. Even that fight was ugly; he made dumb mistakes like giving up top control for a heel hook, got caught in subs against kilburn, got touched up on the feet, it was just not a good performance considering how low level kilburn is. I hate Ring’s striking; he is full of nervous energy and cannot strike at all. He will throw things, but always looks off balance and wants to get it to the ground as soon as possible. He has terrible defense too as he doesnt move his head at all, and doesnt defend himself very well because again, he cannot strike. His grappling reminds me a lot of his striking; filled with nervous energy. He is explosive on the ground but that does lead to him getting reversed or jumping the gun going for a submission. He loves the darce choke but also has triangles off of his back. What I hate is his positional grappling; he never tries to win minutes he just wanta to get out of there as soon as possible. To say some good things, this kid is definitely very strong and athletic, he just needs a lot of refining. Unfortunately, he is years away from being ufc level so with a win he could end up ruining his career. He also trains under his father at a family owned bjj gym, so i do question how good his grappling actually is. I favor ring because of the grappling but im not super confident. Pajuelo could clip him on the feet, but I dont think his grappling is up to par. Winner of this fight will be an easy fade in the ufc. I would be shocked if either guy wins a round let alone a fight in the ufc.

* Edited at 08.16.2023, 9:40 AM ET *

AyyLmaonnaise you writing nonsence about dos santos and Pereira. Dos santos has decent wrestling. And first fight of Pereira with that guy is available on instagram. There was robbery and you say not controversial decision. he trash grappler an he hit like little girl. you writing bullhit.

He won that fight. You sound like a biased South American; literally the only people I’ve seen say robbery are from Argentina 

And anyways he dominated ziller in the rematch before he quit 

* Edited at 08.17.2023, 8:10 PM ET *