Contender Series 2024: Week 4 Full Card Preview and Predictions

Intro so coming up next Tuesday is going to be week number four of the contender series for 2024 and I think so far we've got a pretty good season we've got a lot of contracts handed out we've got a lot of finishers we've got a lot of great fights as well and I think that that doesn't stop with this card I think that this is also going to be a very good card to watch as well now I do think that this is going to be one where we could see firefighters signed for the first time the season so far we've only seen four out of five winners signed for every fight um card so far I think that this is kind of where we start to see all five get signed I'm expecting finishes in most of the fights I'm expecting really good fights out of most of the fights as well and I do think that this is going to be a good one I do want to say this though I will be a little bit later on my predictions for week number five because I am going overseas to visit well my dad who's working overseas at the moment so I won't be back until the weekend next week and then I'll record and upload the videos but even then I think will still be up before the the card like 48 hours before the card next week I think so that's just kind of where I'm at with week number five of course I will write an article for we wi picks though and that is the $10 per month membership but you can get a 3-day free trial signing up using my code artam I am a little bit late this week as well um to be honest with you I haven't really been all that busy it's just the fact that unfortunately Austin bashy versus Tommy McMillan was canceled yesterday and that's when when I typically upload these videos so I had to wait a day to um upload the prediction video of course because I was waiting for them to officially announce his new opponent and another one as well is I'm not going to be first this week so shout out to 138 MMA he beat me this week I believe by over 24 hours putting out his predictions pretty early so he's done pretty well there with all of that being said though I'll see you guys in the predictions so starting off the card is Quillan Salkilld vs. Gauge Young going to be quill Andel killed fighting against Gage young at lightweight and this is a bit of an interesting one because the odds makers delayed putting out the odds for this fight for quite a while I believe over 24 hours after all other four fights got odds announced qu Andel killed versus Gage Young's odds didn't drop until about 24 hours later and I thought that that was because they just didn't know how to line the fight and they were eventually just going to drop the fight at minus 110 either way and that wasn't the case at all they released the odds and quel killed has opened as a minus 220 favorite which is pretty wide now I am kind of put it out there I am going to pick quill and cell kill to win the fight but I thought that it was a little bit wide because I do think that both of these guys are going to match up very interestingly in a way that I feel like both of their strengths are their opponent's weaknesses for qu Andel kild he is 6' tall for 155b so he is going to be a lot taller in this matchup and he does box very well from range he is mostly a boxer on the feet throws a lot of straight shots throws in combinations and also does have pretty good counter boxing and has showing that he does have one punch knockout power because in about what like 40 seconds I believe he knocks out Blake donelly with a counter and that was that was it that was the fight now the best part of his game though is not his striking I think the best part of this game is actually his grappling and his pure grappling is very good he's always hunting for submissions whether or not that's when he's on his back whether or not that's on top he's always going to be trying to find a submission and no matter what position he is put in now I do think that his biggest weakness is actually Gage Young's biggest strength and that's the weakness and that's the wrestling sorry I think that qu and cell kills wrestling isn't his best part of his game at all and I don't think that his takedown defense is very good either but I do think that if that's something that he worked on I think he would be a much more effective fighter to see now taking on Gage young Gage young is really only a wrestler I would say he's kind of interesting to watch because he doesn't look that big even though he hasn't fought at 155 pound since 2022 I believe he's been figh at like 165 lb 175 lb these kind of catchweight belts against short notice opponent so not really through any fault of his own but what he does do is on the feet I don't think he's the most technical striker in the world but he does have a lot of power he's got a big overhand right which I've seen him knock people out with he's also got one punch power which he knocked out Manny Muro with one punch in that matchup but what he does so well is he gets to take down and he just land vicious ground and pound and that really could be a pretty good sort of way to defeat quill and cell killed because quill and cell killed in his match up against D Maran which is his most recent fight Don Maran was able to take him down instantly into that fight and really was able to control about 3 minutes of that first round Gage young I think can probably do the same thing I do think that Gage young can get takedowns on S killed but the thing is when it gets down to the ground I don't think that Gage young has really fought someone that's going to be throwing up submissions and being so like aggressive off the back aside from this one loss to Bobby Lee and that Bobby Lee loss is a bit interesting because you can't actually really find it anywhere you can't see it on YouTube like a lot of Gage young fights UFC Fight Pass also has a couple gaug young fights a bit of his older fight and you can't find them however on Bobby Lee's Instagram if you scroll through you can find Instagram reals where Bobby Lee has actually uploaded highlights of that fight and from what it looks like it seemed like Bobby Lee was getting taken down but he was able to reverse the positions against young and eventually young gased out in the third round andly was able to lock up the arar because when you do see the finish it looked like young was very visibly tired and I do think that is definitely something to note because I do worry a little bit about the cardio of Gage young you know he did gas out a bit in that Lea fight but even at the end of round one against Manny Muro although he did really dominate the fight he did still start to breathe pretty pretty heavily on the stall and qu and C Guild has gone five rounds before uh with five rounds with Brit pastor at 155 which I think is worth noting because Gage J hasn't had to cut to5 for a fight since 2022 but overall I think that each Fighter's weaknesses and strengths do kind of match up quite well because I do think that Quin cell killed is the better Striker out of the two I do think that he's more technical out of the two even though I think that Gage Young if he lands a shot is probably more likely to find The Knockout on the feet and I do think that Gage J has much better wrestling but I like quill and cell killed grappling and I do think that just kind of overall he is better in more areas of the fight and I think that he has more ways to win as well because cell kill has shell and that he can get a knockout on the feet and he has shell and that he can grapple on the ground as well so that is my pick I am going to be going with quill Andel kill to find a very late finish I think that there's a very good chance that Gage young goes out there and wins the first round gets the take down C killed isn't able to reverse it but he's throwing up submissions and then after that maybe Young's a little bit more tired than cill and CK can maybe start to take over with his own grappling and that's how I see the fight going I am going to predict quill and sill to win by late submission in this matchup but I do think that Gage young has been a little bit overlooked by the odds makers and also the tapology voters but that is the pick cell killed to win with somewhat low to medium confidence I would say and Yuneisy Duben vs. Shannon Clark now we have kind of like the most interesting decision so far I would say to have uni to been on the contender series because she is 4 and0 that she is 4 and0 against opponents that have never fought before and this is the perks of typology uh Angelo you can you can look at the opponents here and uniss debin has never fought anyone with any experience as a professional all of her opponents have had no fights and I believe multiple of these opponents have never won a fight she F to 0 and one and this Regina kasana girl is 0 and3 and I believe Andrea VES is now 0 and four so these wins have not aged very well at all and if you do watch the fights it does kind of look like her opponent don't have that experience at all and I think it's actually especially obvious in her most recent fight which is her only fight in the last 4 and a half years or so against ingred Garcia it looked like ingred Garcia didn't really know what she was doing and ingred Garcia was actually able to get a takedown against UNC dein but to talk a little bit positively about dein she does have a Wu Kung Fu background as well as taond do if you go to her Instagram it looks like she's won a couple of international competitions in Taekwondo and Kung Fu but that's kind of it about her you don't really get to see any takedown defense against any real competition you don't get to see any grappling at all and on the feed although she is Technical and she probably well she is going to be the better striker in this match up for sure I just don't think that she can defend the takedowns of Shannon Clark Shannon Clark is pretty big for 125b she's very strong and the way that she wins her fights is actually in the clinch now it can be somewhat of a boring style to to watch but she does make it work a lot because as soon as she does get into a dominant position in the clinch she is throwing in a lot of knees and a lot of elbows and that's how she kind of ends up getting her takedowns and ends up putting her opponents in very uncomfortable positions she's coming up the biggest win of her career at all again of all of all sorry against tiny Lopez who was a black belt and BJJ and if you do watch that fight it is a brutal Bulldog submission because she's got her in the Bulldog choke if you're familiar with with what it is and she's like pulling her neck back like it's it's just kind of kind of hard to watch I'll be honest even for someone that's watched like a lot in the N that was a that was a ruthless choke because she's pulling the Nick up and choking her out at the same time Shannon Clark's got a lot of strength I do think that on the feet she can be very hitable because she does kind of just plot forward and is pretty flat-footed but that's not her game she isn't a striker and I just find it relatively hard to believe that duin is going to be able to defend takedowns against Clark so I'm going to go with Clark in this one here and I do think that she does find a finish on the ground most likely a submission I just have no idea how good Dubin is at grappling and I know that Clark is still pretty good at grappling so that's the pick I do think that Clark does find a submission at some point in the fight Austin Bashi vs. Dorian Ramos and now we have the short notice replacement fight Austin bashy fighting against Arian Ramos the original matchup was Austin bashy versus Tommy McMillan which I know a lot of people were very excited about there were a lot of people on besy but there were a lot of people on Tommy McMillan as well and it was going to get very interesting because well tonmy McMillan's a very a very like kind of interesting character in MMA because he was talking he was talking a lot and he was going to make it super super fun and I think that Tommy McMillan could potentially be a star in in the UFC but unfortunately the fight wasn't meant to be I was going to go with bashy and that one but um yeah it was it was a very tough fight to watch and McMillan is massive 145 and to talk about that b is now going to be fighting Dorian Ramos at 145 and I don't really think either of these guys are featherweights I'll be honest with you especially with Austin bashy I don't really like Austin bashy at 145b now bashy isn't 5'3 I think that he probably is like maybe 5'5 maybe 5' 6 because ascar escar was listed at 5'7 and ascar escar was taller than him so kind of just based on that he's not 5'7 but he's a little bit shorter he's not a featherweight though I don't think now he did Miss weight in that mat match up against esar Esa apparently he struggled to make 135b what I'm kind of thinking is going to happen is Austin bashy will get signed to the UFC should he win this matchup which I do think he does and then he's going to get a little bit of help maybe from the UFC pi to make that 135b weight class but to talk about besi and his skill set he is a very talented wrestler and Grappler if you do watch his fights as soon as he gets the take down he's working for submissions on the feet he's definitely not the most strong Striker at all but he is very fast I actually was somewhat impressed by how fast he was on the feed against esar escar even though ascar was able to land a couple of decent shots on the feet from range but he has beaten good guys as well like I do rate a win over P Vargas all of P vargas's losses are against good Fighters esar Esa is a very good fighter on the regional scene as well and he's also beaten a couple of other decent guys with good records and these guys with not so good records were a short notice Replacements cuz he was meant to fight B tour veteran Ricky bandas I believe Aro husek even fought for the pfl at some point and then zachari stepped in on short notice so yeah there's kind of a lot of interesting things about Austin bashy he's fought some good guys but I do think he's a little bit too small for 145 in general his skill set is good though he's a very dominant wrestler he's a very dominant Grappler and now on short notice he has a mirror matchup Dorian Ramos as I just said I think he's also a small featherweight and he's also a wrestler on the feet he doesn't really have too much to offer but it doesn't really matter because he's always shooting for takedowns anyway in fact I would say that Bashi is probably the better Striker out of the two but Ramos is a grinder he's got really good cardio and he's always always working in that wrestling now if you do watch a few of his fights you can see that when Ramos is on top he looks really really good but he has been submitted a couple of times once and he has been put in bad positions before as well I watched his fight against Andrew Queen and in that fight um Dorian Ramos starts off super super hot 5 seconds into the fight gets a take down and kind of controls the first round but after that Andrew Quinn starts to actually get a lot of reversals and starts to take the back quite a lot in that matchup and you can see kind of throughout his whole career guys have been able to get the back of Darian Ramos and I do think that's a little bit of a weakness in his game because I think if you give Austin bash your back he's probably going to find a submission it is a mirror match up and honestly I do just think that Austin is a little bit bitter everywhere Ramos has a chance because he does just have such a grinding style but I don't think we've ever seen any real problems with bash's cardio so I do think we're going to see Bashi win and only eight people have have picked because the fight was just announced but I do think that besi wins by submission and I do think that he wins by submission in round one or round two now Will Curry will be fighting Will Currie vs. Djorden Santos against Jordan Santos in this matchup it's kind of interesting because I have seen a couple of people picking Jordan SOS is a massive Underdog and I can kind of see it but I just don't think that he has the style to defeat Will Curry Will Curry is a pretty hyped up Prospect you know he's a very very good submission Grappler at middleweight he probably is one of the B pure Grapplers at middleweight that I have seen because you don't really see that style so much in this weight class but he does have a slight weakness kind of everywhere else on the feet he's got really good kicks but he does still seem to be quite uncomfortable in the strike in and I do think that it is showcased a lot by I think his biggest weakness is the fact that he shells up a lot when he's put up under any pressure against MC stanson I found it a little bit interesting that no judge scored it for Will Curry I mean maybe I'm just an idiot but I really thought that there's an argument that will curry could have won three of those rounds uh one two and five I think are the rounds that you could give to Curry potentially but Stanton one 2 three and four I believe in all three judges scorecards but in round three again against Mi Stanton he just kind of folded a lot you know mix Stanton landed a couple big shots and what w Curry did was he just kind of like closed up as guard like this one backed up against the cage and he didn't throw back he didn't clinch he didn't try and move out of the way kind of like a lot of other Fighters can do that was his reaction was was close up and kind of shall away and then I watched his fight against wellison henrique and wallison henrique you know he's a veteran 16 wins 13 losses in that fight wallison Enrique is a lot smaller than Curry and he's just bombing away in the boxing and that's all he's doing and will Curry's response to wallison henrique's pressure is just to Shell up and close up and he does this throughout the whole fight until he eventually ends up finding the submission so I do worry a little bit that if Will Curry does fight a guy that's a bit better than Wallace and henrique but is also an aggressive Striker he's going to struggle a lot because I don't really like that tendency and that reaction that he does do but aside from that he's pretty good his pure grappling is great he's a really really good submission Grappler he's proven many many times that he can win scrambles and I think he's going to get put in scrambles in this matchup and I thought that he did have a pretty good performance against MC Stanton who has beaten a lot of good prospects himself absolutely dominated Leon u in their fight it was end up being a retirement on the stall I believe the corner actually called it for U apparently L maybe injured his hand but yeah that was a dominant performance he got the takedown got on top and just landed brutal ground on pound throughout the whole fight and then now he takes on Jordan Santos who could be a difficult match up for him because Jordan Santos I would actually say is also a Grappler I would say grappling probably is his best skill set but he does have very good takedown defense I think he showcased pretty good takedown defense and every single one of his fights really he showed good takedown defense in his only loss which can be pretty easily found on Fight Pass but then on YouTube you can find these ones this guy Felipe moutinho was trying trying to take him down the whole fight Santos was able to defend I believe every single one but one or two takedowns and that was a lot of takedown defense that that he managed to wack up on the feet I think that he is going to be the better boxer because Jordan Santos really is a boxer he doesn't really throw too many kicks throws a lot of onws that's probably his best part of his game does like to fight from range a bit on the feet but I don't think that he's going to be aggressive enough on the feet to really like make Will Curry kind of pay for that tendency of just showing up and also I do think that wurry will eventually manage to find a position on the ground now I do worry a little bit just because of the fact of how good Santos takedown defense is that maybe Curry won't be able to get the takedowns but I I do think that eventually at some point in the fight Curry is going to find a good grappling position I think once he does that that's kind of where it kind of changes a lot because he's going to land a lot of ground on pound he's going to be throwing up a lot of submission attempts and I do think that W Curry wins but I do think that minus 400 is very very wide odds man because if you do watch Jordan Santos he does have better boxing and he does have really good takedown defense as well now if W Curry does go out there and just takes him down easily then will Curry's offensive wrestling is a lot better than uh than I thought it was but I think that it's a it's a good matchup for will carry but there is still a chance that the big Underdog could win in this matchup and that's why I'm going to be picking Will Curry to win by submission Igor Cavalcanti vs. Seok Hyun Ko and now we move up to to the main event and this fight gave me headaches because Eagle kti there's no tape on him aside from the couple of fights and I did really try my best to find tape on Eagle cavanti because he opened is like a minus what is heus 310 on bid online right now I don't know what the oddsmakers are basing this off of because they must know something that I don't because if you look into evil Cav County the only fights that you can find on his tape is the amateur fight which he won in 12 seconds and then his Pro debut which 1 and 27 seconds he spent most of his career fighting for this promotion called inside Fighters league and inside Fighters league has actually since gone under they've deleted their YouTube channel and of course alongside all of the fights alongside it so I couldn't watch Eagle cover K's fight I did try and use the Wayback machine to go back in time on the internet and then try and watch them that way but I don't really know how to use the Wayback machine and it didn't really come up with anything that was that useful so that was a little little bit of a shame but I was able to watch his Pro debut I was able to watch his amateur debut and I also did go to his Instagram and I did find highlights of this fight against Gilson kardoso but this Gilson kardoso just kind of looked like an overweight well journeyman which is what he is but what Eagle caval County brings to the table is as soon as the fight starts this guy is just going to be coming forward unless the style has changed since 2021 but in his fight against Pedro henrique the fight starts in Eagle cover H is just swinging bombs and he ends up knocking them out in 12 seconds against Antonio Carlos the fight starts instantly Eagle C County runs forward and he just picks up Antonio Carlos and just slams him down to the ground lands a couple of ground and pound shots but then ends up winning by re nak could choke in 27 seconds and that's all I have to go off so what I can tell from that is that he's a very aggressive fighter he's a very fast starter and it really is no wonder that he has been able to get so many finishes in such quick succession the problem is he's been able to get so many finishes and such quick succession against pretty poor competition so it's kind of just hard to tell like how good these guys are like this guy you know actually wasn't that bad it's probably the best guy he's fought to be honest with you but this guy here was coming off a loss to a guy that was 9 and8 all of his wins were against losing opponents aside from one and then this guy here kind of the same sort of story won a couple of fights you know and then didn't fight for 8 years and then he fought Eagle cover KY to get knocked out in 186 there's just nothing to go off aside from the fact that he does have a brown belt in BJJ according to his Instagram and if you do search up his name Eagle cavanti you can see him compete in grappling competition so I think he's going to be the better Grappler in this matchup but his opponent sh kko is is is pretty good to be honest with you I did watch his fight he is the world champion in 2017 and when he did that he become the first ever world champion from South Korea so that's pretty cool and then after he did that he transitioned into MMA to pretty good success really he does have a couple of pretty bad losses I would say got knocked out by Sasha pletnikov who was in the UFC at one point Hansel Kim knocked him out as well and the way that Hansel Kim knocked him out was by exposing the biggest weakness in sako's game Sako is a very technical Striker I actually think he looks pretty good but the problem is he doesn't fight the best guys and then when he did Step Up in competition against hansim he got knocked out and what he does as well is he likes to box in the pocket a lot but he likes to box in the pocket way too much because he will get in the pocket and he will just kind of stay there and then try and throw a couple more shots against Hansel Kim Hansel Kim has you know been on the road to UFC a couple of times so you might be familiar with him but Hil Kim was able to just knock him out because K Co close the distance against him stood in the pocket for way too long and Hil Kim just kind of cracked him with one massive shot and put him down quite a brutal KO loss actually but he come back against a couple of guys and I think that all three of these guys were mismatches because if you watch the fight he he wins them all easily this Jay W Kim guy gave him a pretty decent fight I guess but on the feet it wasn't close Yak kko was just smacking his leaks with his great leak kicks was defending his takedowns pretty well but as a five and4 opponent and then ryota Sakurai was 51 years old when he fought him and yes he dominated that fight but Sakurai had nothing for him he's 51 and then this was also a mismatch against Alan Kai and he knocked him out in a minute so kind of um interesting sort of for Sato is he hasn't fought Good Guys either but the reason is I I just don't have anything to go off with Eagle caval County because eagil Cav County could be the next big thing he could be but I have never seen him fight aside from 39 seconds of tape so I don't really have anything to go off and I'll be honest with you I just would stay well away from this fight I don't think that this fight is worth making a bit on I don't even feel that comfortable making a pick on the fight because I've seen 39 seconds of tape and that's really it but I am just going to go with the fighter that I've seen more tape of and that is Sako I do think that if he can survive the first round against evil cavanti which is going to be a lot easier said than done because kaval kti is just an absolute wild man in there kaval kti from what I've seen within 39 seconds of tape is just bombing forward all of the time shooting takedowns he's trying to get the submission he's trying to get the KO I think he's going to slow down I don't think there's anyone on this planet that can keep that kind of pressure keep that kind of pace for 5 minutes and if sakano can defend takedowns to start with and then just survive the absolute Onslaught that eagle Cav C is going to bring on the feet I think that he can start to take over in the second and the third round so if this fight gets extended I think that sakan Co can go on to win so I am going to pick sakan Co to win by late finish over a gas out Eagle cover County but I feel like a lot of people are just going to pick Cav County to win in the first round which is let's be honest probably the most likely scenario here it's just that I have not really had anything to go off with eigor so I'm going to go with the guy that I've seen more of and and shako doesn't look that bad he doesn't so I'm going to go with him in the match up let me know what you think in the comments below and um with all that being said I'll see you guys in the next one