BIG MAD

Dana White’s weekly “Contender Series” event is designed to showcase the best up-and-coming talents not signed to the promotion, but sometimes fighters either play it safe or fail to perform like it’s an audition for UFC superstardom.

This week’s edition of Dana White’s “Contender Series” did not get off to a great start on Tuesday after one UFC hopeful blew up the scale and forced the cancellation of his fight. Then things went from bad to worse when White and special guest Lorenzo Fertitta had to sit through a trio of ho-hum decisions, none of which resulted in a UFC contract.

Fortunately, Joe “BodyBagz” Pyfer closed the show with a knockout win over Ozzy Diaz.

“Let me reiterate what this show is about,” White told host Lauro Sanko. “There’s a lot of talented people out there, a lot of talented fighters, a lot of talented kids. I don’t watch anything on anybody before the come here. Tonight you had somebody from (Urijah) Faber’s camp, somebody from Serra-Longo, you got all these famous teams … I don’t care what you did in your career the last five years. What are you gonna do tonight? So next week when you roll in here, the next crew on Tuesday, show me who you are Tuesday night, that’s the only thing I’m concerned with. If you wanna get into the UFC and this is where you wanna be, act like Joe Pyfer. Be Joe Pyfer. Be excited to be here. Be fired up to fight. Try to finish the fight, try to win. Be Joe Pyfer and you will get into the UFC.”

Pyfer (9-2) was awarded a UFC contract at the conclusion of the show.

“Every night is not going to be your night,” White said at the post-fight press conference. “But Tuesday night fucking better be. Tuesday night better be your night. This is a huge opportunity for these kids. Even when the fights were over, nobody was overly excited. Nobody thought they delivered tonight. Nobody was acting like they felt like they were moving on to bigger things. I didn’t feel that at all. You know what you’re coming here for. You know what this show is all about. More than anything, forget about me, do it for yourself. If you really want to be in the UFC, and you want your name out there, and you want people to know who you are, you want to walk in and be able to get sponsors, and all of the things that go along with professional fighting, perform on Tuesday night. Show us what you’ve got. Show us who you are. You’re either good enough to be in the UFC, or you’re not. If you are, show that to us.”

Simply put: Do you wanna be a fucking fighter?