Dana White’s Contender Series kicks off its ninth year on Tuesday evening at the UFC APEX, as the first five pairs of athletes make the walk to the Octagon in hopes of impressing the UFC CEO and earning the opportunity to compete on the biggest stage in the sport.
Every year, the incoming class of hopefuls have a lot to live up to, but the Season 9 contestants truly have a high bar to clear to measure up to last year’s graduating class, as several members of the Class of ’24 have already started making serious noise in their respective divisions during their first year on the roster. But you could have said the same for that group, who followed the Season 6 crew that featured the Fighting Nerds trio of Carlos Prates, Jean Silva, and Mauricio Ruffy (amongst many others) and they managed to do it, so here’s to this year’s crop raising the bar again.
How To Watch Dana White’s Contender Series, Season 9
One thing I’m going to do throughout this season, because I think it’s an interesting way to look at these largely younger, inexperienced athletes is introduce what I call a “Since Score” for each fighter. You basically compile the records over everyone an athlete has faced, subtract the losses from the wins (draws are +0.5, no contests are -0.5) and that gives you the number. The higher the number, the better, in theory, the level of competition that individual has faced.
Make sense? Cool, now let’s dive into the matchups that make up the first week of Season 9.
