By Cassandra Cousineau of LVSportsBiz.com
Live from the Apex, UFC’s little building in the southwest Las Vegas valley that could do very big things, Dana White Contender Series (DWCS) kicked off its sixth season in Las Vegas Tuesday.
While Las Vegas’ other sports venues Like MGM Grand Garden Arena, T-Mobile Arena, and the 62,500-seat Allegiant Stadium dwarf the 130,000-square-foot Apex production studio, it has been home to an incredibly large number of MMA athletes since opening in 2018.
At tonight’s 31st DWCS episode, the mini-arena facility next to UFC’s headquarters off the 215 beltway has welcomed 629 different fighters to make the walk inside the UFC APEX. According to the UFC, no venue in the world has hosted more UFC events.
In total, 22 “Contender Series” alumni have made their way into the UFC’s top 15 in their respective divisions.
Although UFC has several other notable properties in its home-made content arsenal, like The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), and Dana White Looking for a Fight, DWCS has a more make-or-break urgency to each event. Weekly, fighters show up in front of UFC President Dana White, and matchmakers Sean Shelby, and Mick Maynard for the chance to earn a contract with the UFC.
Often, those opportunities come right on the spot. At the end of each show, White bestows the coveted prize. Occasionally, he’s generous and each winner gets what he or she is after. That wasn’t the case tonight, though. Only one contract was awarded to middleweight Joe Pyfer.
An animated boss man was not very pleased, imploring fighters to “Show me what you got when you come here Tuesday night! Listen, every night is not gonna be your night. F- – – ing Tuesday night better be.”
He added a few more expletives to drive home his point for fighters to be prepared to impress. “To be fair to these kids who fought here tonight, there were some talented kids. Everybody’s f- – -ing talented that shows up here every Tuesday for ten weeks. They’re all talented. Show us what you got.”
DWCS originated from the old TUF gym in Las Vegas, the launching pad for dozens of contenders and eventual champions. And 28 seasons of the Ultimate Fighter were filmed at the gym which helped introduce some of the industry’s brightest stars to mainstream MMA fans.
The show has not yet produced a UFC champion, although it did produce its first title challenger in 2020, flyweight Alex Perez, and current rising star bantamweight Sean O’Malley.
Unlike roster veterans, many vying for DWCS contracts still work full-time jobs. For instance, tonight’s card featured light heavyweight Acacio Dos Santos, a security guard in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The 2022 DWCS premiere was headlined by a Middleweight clash between entertaining strikers Ozzy Diaz and Joe Pryfer and featured former fighters Paul Felder, Laura Sanko. That’s quite a ways from the inaugural season when rapper Snoop Dogg was alongside longtime UFC fighter and TUF winner Urijah Faber.
The UFC also had “SnoopCast” which had Snoop and Faber drinking the rapper’s favorite beverage gin and juice. Light on the fight commentary, Snoop provided some insight on the action, but eventually announced the production gave him the “green light” to add some organic smoke to the place.
Similar to previous seasons, there will be 10 weekly fight cards with the finale scheduled to take place Sept. 27.