Las Vegas — It’s not often that a losing fighter on Dana White’s Contender Series earns a UFC deal. This past Tuesday, on Week 7 of Season 10, it happened twice.
Jaden Ortega won a deal off a decision loss to Alvi Dasuyev, while England’s Callum Connor went the distance with Piero Guaylupo, losing a decision in the lightweight bout yet winning a UFC contract nonetheless.
It’s easy to see why: Guaylupo vs. Connor set a striking record for the Contender Series, one that would have broken the UFC record set by Max Holloway and Dustin Poirier for strikes thrown (Guaylupo and Connor threw over 800, and landed roughly 400 significant strikes). The bout is being called a Fight of the Year contender.
Speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press after the bout, Connor (8-1) admitted that “this is not a scenario I envisaged, where it would happen like this. I’d seen myself going out there and winning in spectacular fashion, maybe going to the camera, going up to Dana. But it doesn’t always go like that in this game. He was a tough hombre, South American. I feel like I hit him with everything and the kitchen sink, and he was just going nowhere.”
“Had a good start to the fight, got dropped with a shot, and I had to find myself in there,” Connor added.
The British lightweight had to overcome plenty of adversity, especially after being dropped early. There was no thought of looking for a way out, however.
“There was no way I wasn’t dragging myself off that canvas. My legs might have gone a little bit, but I’d have died in there. People say they want it, I need this. I remeber being a 10-year old boy, watching UFC for the first time, being magnatized towards it. And ever since walking into an MMA gym six years ago, I knew that the Contender Series would be the route in. It’s not how we wanted to do it, but here we are, and I’m so pleased.”
Watch the full Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10 Week 7 post-fight press conference with Callum Connor above.