Last year, 42 competitors garnered contracts across the season’s 10 events, with winners like Mansur Abdul-Malik, Jose Delgado, and Malcolm Wellmaker already having made a serious impact since transitioning onto the roster. To date, 276 athletes heard UFC President Dana White call their names at the end of the night, with another 11 joining those ranks through a three-event, all-Brazilian miniseries in 2018, and this evening, 10 more athletes across three divisions made the walk in hopes of being the first members of the DWCS Class of ’25.
It didn’t take White long to make his decisions for Week 1 and much like on Season 6, the UFC President came out hot, calling it a weird night before offering his assessments of Tuesday’s victors. After passing on both Yuri Panferov and Radley Da Silva, White welcomed Ty Miller to the UFC roster, suggesting he make a trip to the UFC PI, before stating that he had the fight between Ilian Bouafia and Neemias Santana a draw, declining to offer Bouafia a contract.
He then circled back to Baisangur Suserkaev, singing the unbeaten Chechen middleweight prospect’s praises, saying that he saved the first episode of Season 9 while promising to get him booked quickly.
It was a strange night to kick things off, and we’ve got the details on how things played out collected for you below.
Results, Fight Recaps and Scorecards
This page will be updated live throughout the night with full fight recaps, scorecards, plus interviews with Dana White and tonight’s contract winners.
