Dana White’s Contender Series season 10 is finally upon us. For it being the 10th season and their first on Paramount+, you would’ve thought there would be a bigger effort to promote it. However, I do think, as the sport has gotten more popular, this will be the most viewed season yet. There are a fair few mismatches this season. Week 1 was no stranger to that. At least the guys they wanted to get some hype will get some hype.
Joseph Kropschot vs Jon Kunneman
For the first fight of this season, the Prospect Vault team completed an underdog sweep. I think the majority of people saw Kunneman’s shiny undefeated record, as well as a bad three-fight losing streak for Kropschot, and wrote him off. As the team all thought it would, the fact that Kunneman faced some bad competition played a big role in this fight. Moreover, he had never been pushed hard late in a fight. Kunneman was able to get away with swinging wild and running through opponents on the regional level. However, Kropschot did not let that slide. While some shots did get through, for the most part, Kropschot remained defensively responsible. He used his size advantage to stay in range.
After Kunneman realized he wasn’t going to be able to stay in his face the whole fight, Kropschot got himself on the front foot. He used his jab, as well as teep kicks, to keep Kunneman at bay. In the second round, Kunneman started to slow down, and he wasn’t nearly as dangerous as he was early on. At the end of the third round, Kropschot nearly got his back taken. He was able to scramble to get to an armbar position. Kunneman didn’t tap. Kropschot wasn’t able to get the buzzer-beater submission. Dana did say after the fight that he indeed broke his arm.
I think the fact that Kropschot’s striking looked that good and was that effective is a rough look for Kunneman. Striking is not something Kropschot usually dominates in and is mostly used to get in on takedowns. I think there is potential in Kunneman’s skillset. But he needs to clean up his striking game and start fighting higher-level opponents. The armbar attempt absolutely saved Kropschot. If that fight went the distance without the attempt, he wasn’t getting signed.
Tom Pagliarulo vs Ananias Mulumba
This fight got off to a flying start, with each fighter dropping the other less than a minute into the bout. Early on, I thought it was going to go the way I predicted. Mulumba was going to get an early finish, but I think he was scared to get tired. If he had really gone for it early, I think the finish could’ve been there for him. But he didn’t.
Pagliarulo did what he needed to do, which was not engaging in a firefight and using his range. He did well to avoid big shots from Mulumba and had him swinging at air a lot of the time. I think Pagliarulo was a little bit gun-shy. Unless you are Marwan Rahiki, how could you not be against a guy like Mulumba? He landed a really good knee towards the end of round two. I would’ve loved to see him use those up-the-middle weapons on a shorter Mulumba more often.
Pagliarulo’s grappling was a pleasant surprise, as I thought Mulumba was going to have the advantage there. In the end, Mulumba got tired. Pagliarulo took advantage of that by getting on top and finding a ground-and-pound finish late in round three.
I wasn’t a big fan of Pagliarulo going into this bout, but I think training at Tiger Beetle has and will continue to level up his game. Against someone that isn’t at such a big size disadvantage, I think he could end up being quite hittable. That’s not to say he doesn’t pose a striking threat himself. I’m still not fully sold, but I’m glad the improvements were visible.
Bilal Hasan vs Mridul Saikia
To be fair to Saikia, he did land a nice leg kick early on. Not long after, he was on the ground being finished. Funny enough, off another leg kick Saikia threw, Hasan was able to catch him with a right hand that sat him down. From there, the finish was inevitable. Hasan got the sub-one-minute finish like a lot of us thought he would.
I don’t really have anything to say about Bilal Hasan that hasn’t already been said. This kid is going to be the star we all think he will be. He has been the #2 ranked Prospect Vault prospect since I started with them. Although this was a setup fight, he showed it. Hasan is someone I think could come in and compete with ranked guys right away. At only 25, I hope they ease him in to let him score some cool knockouts.
Abe Alsaghir vs Fabrizio Escarrega
In my opinion, this was the worst fight of the night. There was some decent action early on, and it looked like the kind of fight Escarrega would want it to be. It was messy and frantic, but usually, he can find a finish in wild exchanges. Alsaghir was desperately trying to get this fight to the ground. Through the first two rounds, he went 0/14 on takedowns. Neither of these guys was able to keep the pace up. As they got tired, the fight got sloppier. Personally, I don’t agree with the judges’ decision and thought Escarrega was up 20-18 going into the third. It really doesn’t matter, though. I think both guys proved they aren’t UFC level. No matter the winner, they weren’t getting signed.
Anthony Wint vs Matt Adams
Like the Hasan fight, there isn’t really much to say about this one. I know it’s usually how Adams wins, and he can get takedowns against low-level regional guys, but I did think him shooting on Wint was kind of funny. The athleticism gap here was huge, and it showed. From the jump, you could see how much faster Wint was. He basically muscled Adams to the ground off Adams’ own takedown attempt. From there, it was wraps. Just like Hasan, Wint was able to score himself a sub-one-minute finish.
Wint came in at #8 on our list of top 10 fighters going into this season of Contender Series and was one of the higher-rated heavyweight fighters outside the UFC for everyone on the team. His athleticism alone makes him a very interesting guy to keep an eye on going into his first UFC fight, and I love the fact that he wants to get into the UFC cage as soon as possible.
