DWCS week 2 preview and predictions: Israel Adesanya's teammate looks to earn a contract against undefeated prospect
20/08/2024 11:31
Dana White’s Contender series week 2 is upon us and several familiar faces are ready to compete in the UFC Apex as they look to earn contracts again, one of which is Israel Adesanya’s City Kickboxing teammate.
In the first episode of Dana White’s Contender Series Season 8 last week, four new contenders earned contracts following four incredible knockouts, with flyweight Lone’er Kavanagh impressing the most.
Week 2 will be headlined by welterweights, one of which was poached during a recent recording of Dana White Lookin’ For A Fight.
Let’s get into our week 2 matchup previews and predictions.
Billy Brand (5-1) vs Cody Haddon (6-1) – Bantamweight bout
This has the makings of being a great fight on this season of the Contender Series. Like last week, this matchup could well be the best fight of the evening between two guys who realistically could be signed directly to the promotion.
Billy Brand’s lone loss in professional MMA came against last season’s standout fighter, Payton Talbott, who has emerged as a future star for the promotion. Cody Haddon on the other hand has only ever lost to former UFC flyweight title challenger, Steve Erceg.
Brand comes from a kickboxing/Muay Thai background, and will likely mix up his attacks slightly better than Haddon in this one. Despite that, the Australian, Haddon, is the cleaner boxer and Brand tends to allow his hands to drop and lacks striking defense at times.
Haddon has more experience against a better caliber of opponent and fought as early as February this year. However, I’m slightly leaning Brand in this matchup, and maybe that is my Muay Thai bias shining through.
Prediction: Billy Brand via decision
Cam Rowston (8-2) vs Torrez Finney (8-0) – Middleweight bout
Cam Rowston is looking to join a few of his City Kickboxing teammates by earning a contract into the UFC, but he faces the absolute tank that is Torrez Finney.
Rowston, who trains with the likes of Israel Adesanya, Carlos Ulberg, and Dan Hooker, comes from the better and stronger camp, but unfortunately I think he’ll have his hands full in this matchup.
Cam ‘Van Damme’ hasn’t fought for two years, which is a big problem coming into this fight against the explosive Finney. The Australian striker was scheduled to compete on last seaon’s Contender Series, but withdrew from his bout.
Finney on the other hand did compete on last season’s DWCS, earning a second round submission against Yuri Panferov. Rowston will tower over the wrestler in this fight as he is six inches taller, but I don’t think it’ll pay off.
Finney is an explosive and extremely strong wrestler who sets up his entries pretty well. I see him getting Rowston down to the ground and doing some pretty damaging work.
Prediction: Torrez Finney via knockout
Cortavious Romious (8-2) vs Michael Imperato (12-6) – Bantamweight bout
Michael Imperato’s involvement in this season’s Contender Series makes little to no sense. Ahead of UFC 297 in Canada earlier this year, Dana White took a trip to a regional show where they filmed an episode of Dana White Lookin’ For A Fight.
During the episode, Imperato scored a first round submission over Ricky Bandejas. The UFC CEO visited him backstage and told him he was giving him a chance on the Contender Series, despite him being 34 years old. Imperato was actually signed to the promotion over 10 years ago, but was cut before even making his debut because of controversial comments.
Cortavious Romious competed on last season’s DWCS and lost against Ramon Taveras as a moderate favorite. Going into that fight, I favoured Taveras as the striker, but Romious’ freakish athleticism was something I was hesitant about.
Despite that, this is a far easier matchup for him this time out and I think he will likely knockout the 34-year-old Canadian.
Prediction: Cortavious Romious via knockout
Rizvan Kuniev (12-2-1) vs Hugo Cunha (8-1) – Heavyweight bout
Rizvan Kuniev is returning to the UFC Apex after competing on DWCS in 2021 and despite picking up the third round finish, he wasn’t signed by White.
Since then, he has gone on to become Eagle FC heavyweight champion, and even beat Renan Ferreira – who takes on Francis Ngannou in October – during the PFL regular season in 2023, but the win was overturned after he tested positive for steroids.
Hugo Cunha is LFA’s heavyweight champion and beat DWCS alum Eduardo Neves to become the champ.
Kuniev is the far better striker in this matchup, and if the Brazilian doesn’t get the fight to the ground quickly then he will likely be in a world of trouble. ‘Silverback’ is a jiu-jitsu specialist but he isn’t the best at actually getting the fight to the ground.
Cunha’s striking is very below par and he will likely struggle for as long as it lasts on the feet. Even then, though, Kuniev is very strong on the ground and Cunha won’t just have his way there if he does manage to get it to the ground.
Prediction: Rizvan Kuniev via knockout
Pat Pytlik (9-1) vs Andreas Gustafsson (10-2) – Welterweight bout
This is another involvement that doesn’t really make much sense. On the same night that Dana White told Imperato he was getting a chance on DWCS, he also told Pat Pytlik the same after he scored a first round knockout on the same show.
Pytlik is actually a solid fighter, his striking is pretty clean, but I don’t think this will be the fight for clean striking. Andreas Gustafsson is a bit of a mad man in the cage and has a wild fight style.
Whoever wins this fight is going to need to do so impressively, as with them both being over 32-years-old, they won’t be massively favored by White.
I think ‘Bane’ Gustafsson has the slightly tougher strength of schedule compared to the Canadian, but not by a lot.
I can see this being a bit of a fire fight in which it will be determined by who has the better chin and heart. And with that, I would have to favour Gustafsson, however, I wouldn’t expect it to be the cleanest and most technical fight of the evening.
Prediction: Andreas Gusatafsson via decision
