How DWCS contract winner Jordan Williams used past losses as fuel to grow

LAS VEGAS – The third time was the charm for Jordan Williams, who simply refused to be denied in his quest to win a UFC contract.

After failing to earn a contract on Dana White’s Contender Series on two previous occasions, Williams (9-3) finally punched his ticket to the UFC when he stopped Gregory Rodrigues in the first round Tuesday at Dana White’s Contender Series 33.

His first attempt at a UFC contract came in 2018, when he took out Tim Caron in the third round at DWCS 11, but his win was later ruled a no contest after he tested positive for marijuana metabolites.

One year later, Williams faced Ramazan Kuramagomedov and was edged out in a razor-thin split decision loss as he suffered a second successive heartbreak. But, despite those setbacks, Williams used those blemishes as motivation to grow, allowing him to deliver an undeniable performance the third time around.

“If it’s not beneficial over the years, just quit, give up, because you can’t just let anything like that derail you and if something as weak as that derails you, an actual loss, that’s gonna be a hard thing to process,” Williams told reporters, including MMA Junkie, after his win at the UFC Apex. “But I’m a fighter, I fight through adversity, I fight through anything that comes my way, whether it’s a bad call from the judges or the fact that Dana looks at you in the face and say you’re not good enough, and I think it’s that type of inner realization that makes you grow.”

After a quick night at the office, Williams is ready to get back in there and likes the idea of possibly landing on one of the upcoming Abu Dhabi cards next month.

“Fight Island seems pretty cool,” Williams said. “I hear they’re going there for four weeks, and I know there’s a little rest time that the doctors said I had to go through. But, like you said, (I’m) unscathed, man and that’s another point to say, fighting these big guys. … Look at my face, look how pretty I am right now. I don’t plan on that changing.”