1 of the best UFC fighters to come out of DWCS Season 1 & 1 of the worst
- Dana White's Contender Series has been around since 2017
- Throughout it's six seasons, it's produced some major stars
- But it's also found some duds.
By Amy Kaplan
The inaugural season of Dana White's Contender Series (then named Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender Series) debuted on July 11, 2017. It feels like a lifetime ago, right?
At the time, the show had commentary done by iconic rapper Snoop Dogg and UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber. There was no way we knew the series would stick around and will be entering its seventh season in 2024.
The first season was just eight weeks long, as opposed to 10 as it is now and the UFC signed just 16 fighters and one to a developmental deal. Those fighters are:
- Kurt Holobaugh
- Boston Salmon
- Sean O'Malley
- Karl Roberson
- Geoff Neal
- Julian Marquez
- Brandon Davis
- Mike Rodriguez
- Alex Perez
- Charles Byrd
- Grant Dawson
- Benito Lopez
- Joes Sanchez
- Matt Frevola
- Lauren Mueller
- Allen Crowder
- Bevon Lewis (developmental)
Dan Ige was also a product of season one, though he didn't earn a contract after his fight.
In those days you had to do something spectacular to get a contract. Nowadays fighters are getting signed when they haven't even won their fight. Things have changed a lot since season one.
In this article we'll take a look at the best and worst signing from season one, not that we're quite a few years removed.
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