Dana White’s Contender Series 72: Grading the winners

Dana White’s Contender Series 72: Grading the winners

Week 6 of Dana White’s Contender Series (2024) took place on Tuesday in Las Vegas, and we’re grading the winners from the five-fight card, which streamed on ESPN+ from the UFC Apex.

With a simple but digestible format that has had the MMA fanbase responding, this series has shown to have legs in multiple ways while serving as a crockpot for contenders the UFC matchmakers can use to fill their roster for future events. With that trend in mind, I once again will be taking a look at the winning fighters, regardless of whether or not they won a UFC contract, and grading their performances in regard to their probability of returning to a UFC stage.

***

Ahmad Hassanzada

Weight class: Lightweight
Result: Ahmad Hassanzada def. Dylan Mantello via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 3, 2:14
Grade: B+

Summary: Setting the tone for the night was a war of attrition between Ahmad Hassanzada and Dylan Mantello.

It may not have been a display of the highest level of technique, but I felt obligated to bump Hassanzada’s grade up a bit after the insane effort he put forth to dig deep and finish this fight.

Hassanzada had his normal strong start, stealing the initiative with southpaw aggression that offered everything from overhands to (ill-advised) spinning assaults. But after the legendary Ray Longo lit a fire under Mantello’s ass in between rounds, the Long Island native came out and knocked Hassanzada known in the following frame, piecing the Afghan up at a 3-1 ratio.

However, despite being dead tired after Round 2, Hassanzada came out like hell on wheels, determined to take it to his opponent. After eventually getting Mantello to the fence, Hassanzada was able to impressively take the Serra-Longo fighter’s back in a scramble and secure the rear-naked choke for the win.

Despite Dana White being visibly displeased about bringing the fighter from Afghanistan aboard (stating that it was on behalf of UFC matchmaker, Sean Shelby), I’m glad that Hassanzada received a chance in the big show.

Hassanzada’s technique and defense have a lot of room for improvement of the feet, but a durable, southpaw action fighter who can competently wrestle and grapple makes for dependable entertainment, as well as a deceptively tough test for potential prospects on the way up.

With that in mind, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Hassanzada booked against someone like Jordan Vucenic before year’s end.

Ateba Gautier

Weight class: Middleweight
Result: Ateba Gautier def. Yura Naito via TKO (punches) – Round 2,
Grade: B

Summary: Despite being on the right end of a complete physical matchup, I still felt that Ateba Gautier deserved a strong B for maintaining his cool early en route to a second-round stoppage over Yura Naito.

Regardless of what the betting lines may have said, I kinda hate to see such comical mismatches made by the matchmakers like this.

Aside from the fact that they usually provide minimal feedback regarding skills ceilings, they also perpetuate the athletic stereotypes (on both sides) that tend to sadly take precedence for many when analyzing or discussing these fighters. That said, there were a couple of solid takeaways from this fight.

On the positive side, Gautier – who was put on his back by Naito fairly early in the fight – kept his cool and did not look to tire despite being wrestled for the better half of Round 1.

On the more critical side, however, Gautier – thought still clearly young in his career – appeared a bit lost for options when working from his back.

I don’t blame Gautier for being more on the raw side given the matchmakers’ recent booking trends of bringing aboard fighters who are still arguably in the freshman years of their careers. That said, Gautier is in the big show now and will need to shore up his grappling and getup game given the steady supply of submission specialists that middleweight tends to provide.

For my money, I suspect that the matchmakers will pair Guatier up with someone like Robert Valentin for his first official UFC assignment.

Benjamin Bennett

Weight class: Welterweight
Result: Benjamin Bennett def. Joey Hart via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28)
Grade: C+

Summary: Disagreeing with the decision aside, I had a hard time getting to a B for Benjamin Bennett given the lack of impactful action that his style produced in the first two frames.

Joey Hart had the more dynamic, eye-catching offense at distance, doing a decent job of utilizing his range. Whether Hart was measuring with his jab or countering off of Bennett’s jabs, the 27-year-old made a good account for himself standing.

Bennett, who came out of the gate looking like your standard wrestle-boxer archetype, was able to steadily pull away within wrestling exchanges as the fight went on, but valiantly decided to stand his ground and go blow-for-blow with Hart in Round 3.

I really liked the pivots off of shot entries and subsequent dirty boxing from Bennett, but it was too little, too late – at least when it came to impressing Dana White.

Considering the UFC president’s history of not favoring wrestle-heavy fighters, I wasn’t shocked to see him deny Bennett come contract time. That said, Bennett (who comes off like the character Waingro in the film HEAT) won me over with his post-fight interview with Lauro Sanko, and I hope that he gets consideration from the matchmakers down the road.

Tallison Teixeira

Weight class: Heavyweight
Result: Tallison Teixeira def. Arthur Lopes via knockout (punch) – Round 1, 1:57
Grade: B-

Summary: Despite this fight being sloppier than a steak a Truffoni’s, I had a hard time denying Tallison Teixeira the bare minimum B- for coming in and getting the job done early with a first-round finish.

Teixeira’s opponent, granted, was a severely out-sized former welterweight who has only fought once since 2018 (hence the underwhelming grade given), but the “Xicao” was able to keep his cool and eventually find a fight-ending counter that forced Garry Copeland to call an end to the contest.

Teixeira still looks incredibly raw with some porous defense standing, but given the clear but not often talked about lowered bar that exists at heavyweight, I was not surprised to see Dana White get giddy at the prospects of another big man to fill out his main cards with.

I was surprised to see White not even mention the obvious defensive holes that Teixeira displayed, but suspect that those things will be exposed soon enough. Hopefully the matchmakers throw Teixeira in there with another tall, over-inflated athlete like Robelis Despaigne so that we can at least get a fun freakshow fight out of this signing.

Elijah Smith

Weight class: Bantamweight
Result: Elijah Smith def. Aaron Tau via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Grade: A

Summary: Considering that Elijah Smith was arguably the most complete fighter on the card, I couldn’t deny him an A for his all-out war with Aaron Tau.

Smith may have noticeably faded toward the end of Round 2, but given his size and frame (and the fact he took this fight on short notice), I feel like we can cut the American a bit of slack in this spot. More importantly, Smith was ultimately able to answer the call in the final frame while under some severe pressure from a relentlessly tough Tau.

Smith obviously carries some sharp striking in tow, but I was particularly impressed with his positional awareness in clinch and counter-wrestling situations, as well as his scrambling and getup game from the bottom. Even though I have strong suspicions that Smith will finish his career as a featherweight or lightweight given his insanely large build as a bantamweight, I believe that the 22-year-old can compete with the lower-to-middle pack of the division today.

That said, I hope that the UFC takes their time with Smith (as much as they can, anyway) considering his age. As excited as I am for prospects like Smith or Joshua Van, part of me worries about the potential developmental hurdles and premature lessons long term given the dynamic of the UFC business model and its brutal schedule.

As far as Smith’s first booking is concerned, don’t be shocked to see him paired up with someone like Steven Koslow or Quang Le.