Dana White is calling this season of his Contender Series possibly the best one UFC has ever done, and it’s not just promoter-speak.
UFC looks like it has made some legit stars over the past two months.
White’s personal assistant and longtime UFC employee Sal Everett earned a contract. Former New York Jets linebacker Anthony Wint earned a contract. And Miami-Dade County cop Luis “The Stache” Hernandez earned a contract.
Everett, Wint, and Hernandez are just three of the potential stars that the Contender Series machine churned out this season, and it’s not done yet. The Season 10 finale will take place this Tuesday at Meta Apex in Las Vegas. It starts at 7 p.m. ET and can be seen on Paramount+.
“This season has been incredible,” White said in an interview with Complex. “I think being on Paramount+ was so huge for this season because every single week we trended No. 1 during the live event. The numbers for this season are off the charts for Paramount. I mean, this show sometimes outperforms Fight Night. It just felt like an incredible season.”
The main event for the season finale on Tuesday will feature Ilias Bulaid taking on Erick Visconde in the main event.
Here is a look at the full card.
- Featherweight: Ilias Bulaid vs. Erick Visconde
- Women’s Bantamweight: Smilla Sundell vs. Aline Pereira
- Welterweight: Will Rentz vs. Luis Francischinelli
- Middleweight: Douglas da Lapa vs. Davi Cabral
- Featherweight: Jason Asher vs. Greg Foster
Star in the making: Sal Everett
During a numbered UFC event or a UFC Fight Night, Sal Everett’s main task is to make sure Dana White’s fridge is stocked with water and energy drinks. He also must make sure there are bowls of candy for White’s guests, and occasionally run down the street to get his boss a cheeseburger.
“Anything that [White] needs, I’m the guy to go grab it,” Everett told Complex.
At a numbered UFC event or a UFC Fight Night in the near future, White will have to turn to someone else to take over fridge-stocking duties, as his go-to personal assistant will be in the Octagon.
Everett earned a UFC contract, as a fighter, on episode 9 of the Contender Series last week after his stunning knock out of Ozzy Martin at 1:57 of the opening round.
“Sal, we’ve had title fights in [the Meta Apex] and I don’t know if it’s ever been as loud as it was tonight,” White said to the crowd and his assistant that night. “Everybody at the UFC loves you, you’re a great kid. Forget fighting and the contract. You’re a great human being. This could not happen to a better person. You have worked your way from the bottom up. You could not have won more impressively. It’s kind of weird to say because you’re already in the UFC, but Sal, welcome to the UFC!”
Matchmaker Sean Shelby did not take things easy on Everett, putting him in the Octagon with the previously undefeated Martin.
“Before the fight, everybody that knows [Martin] was saying to me, ‘Your boy’s in big trouble. This kid’s nasty’,” White said. “And then … the way that Sal ended it, I mean, you couldn’t write a better script.”
White wanted to prepare Everett for UFC the right way, and not feed him a conveyor belt of creampuff fighters. He wanted to test him from the jump.
“I started going to [Everett’s] fights [at Tuff N Uff]. I think I went to the last two or three [before the Contender Series], and he looked really good,” White said. “I had our matchmakers take over the match-making when he would fight. So we were throwing good guys at him. He’s at an age now where it’s, ‘Do you want to take this serious and give this a shot? If you do, then now’s the time’. So I kind of pushed him into the Contender Series, and here we are.
“I think [Everett] really surprised [matchmaker] Sean Shelby. I told Sean, I want you to make this kid a fight in the Contender Series, and when these matches are made you don’t get softball [expletive] layups here, and Sean kept telling me when he saw me in the halls, ‘Sal’s got a real fight on his hands’. This is a 50/50 fight. I think Sean felt like he really challenged [Everett], and you saw the result. How could you not love the way that [Everett] performed?”
Everett does not have another fight lined up just yet. In the meantime, he plans on staying on as White’s personal assistant.
“Whatever he wants to do,” White said with a laugh. “If he wants to continue to work here, he can. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me … because he’ll still be here every day, training at the PI (Performance Institute). However his fight career goes, he’s obviously still got a job here no matter what. It’s not like he’ll never have the opportunity to come back here if that’s what he wants to do.”
Star in the making: Anthony Wint
Anthony Wint has had a whirlwind stretch these past couple of months. On August 11, he knocked out Matt Adams in 34 seconds in the Contender Series.
Eleven days later, Wint fought Terrance Chatman at UFC Fight Night and put his opponent to sleep in an arm-triangle choke in the first round.
The former linebacker for the New York Jets then had another quick turnaround, as he fought at UFC 332 against Lucas Armand. The Armand fight came just 42 days after the Chatman fight.
This iron-man approach to fighting is something that White admires.
“What I love about this generation of guys is that every one of them wants to turn around and fight again immediately,” White said of Wint and Hernandez. “That’s what you’re supposed to do. That’s what you should do. I love it.”
Wint says this “anytime, anywhere” mantra suits him.
“I love [the quick turnarounds]. I come from football where, obviously, you’re playing every week,” Wint told Complex. “College football, they’re five or six games into the season and haven’t had a bye week. NFL, they’re five games into the season and a lot of teams haven’t had a bye week.
“I come from a place where you don’t really have a choice. If you’re healthy, you’re playing. So it’s the same thing with fighting. If I get a cut, obviously, it takes a certain time to make sure it doesn’t open back up. Or, if I bruise a rib, that’s something I can hide. If I’m being honest, I probably wouldn’t tell my coaches, ‘Hey, my rib hurts if I have the opportunity to fight. So if I’m healthy, and the UFC can find me an adequate opponent and an opportunity’s there, I want to fight.”
The Jets released Wint in August of 2019. He held out hope that he would latch on with another NFL team at some point, but that call never came.
“Being in the NFL was the pinnacle for me, and in losing that, a lot of people lose themselves and their sense of identity,” Wint said. “But I gained my identity by pursuing fighting, and now I can solidify myself and the fact that I’m back.”
The 31-year-old Wint is dreaming big, as one of his goals is to win the UFC Heavyweight Championship one day.
Another one of his goals is to fight at Madison Square Garden.
“I think all fighters know that Vegas is special, obviously. But next to that is Madison Square Garden—for any form of entertainment,” Wint told Complex. “That, plus the fact that I played for the Jets back in 2019. Coming back, it would be—for a lack of a better term—a chance to redeem myself.”
Star in the making: Luis Hernandez
Hernandez is another season 10 Contender Series winner that received a UFC fight just days after earning a contract.
After beating Hugo Guillon via submission on September 15 in Week 6 of the Contender Series, Hernandez then received the news that he would fight Sedriques Dumas on September 26 at UFC Fight Night.
“It’s kind of crazy because I said in my post-fight interview [against Guillon], that I want to be a household name. I want to be active. I want to continue to fight,” Hernandez, who is nicknamed “The Stache” for his Burt Reynolds-esque facial hair, told Complex. “I went back to Miami after and got a little training in.
“They called me on two days notice. I wish I could say it was 11 days, but it was more like two days. They were like, ‘Hey, can you fly out tonight and fight on Saturday?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely.’”
Hernandez’s fight against Dumas was billed as “Cop versus the Convict,” as Hernandez is an active, full-time deputy with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, and Dumas has a lengthy legal history.
With the crowd firmly behind him, the charismatic Hernandez defeated Dumas by submission via a standing guillotine choke just 57 seconds into the bout.
He celebrated the win over Dumas with a wild twerking session that got the fans on their feet.
“I’m a big WWE fan. I get my celebration from D-Generation X. I want to have fans and to entertain them,” Hernandez told Complex. “Even if they want to boo me, that’s fine. I love that. I want to give the fans what they’re looking for. Anybody can be a fighter. You put your hard work in, you can train, you can be the best. But, you might not have the support of the fans. I want to be a household name, I know I’m gonna be a household name. I really want to grow and give the experience back to the fans.”
Hernandez plans to remain a member of the force in the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office while setting his sights on the biggest prize in the UFC Light Heavyweight division.
“The support I have from my agency is unbelievable,” Hernandez said. “And it’s not just my agency, it’s worldwide. I have individuals sending me [police] patches, which is a big thing for us in law enforcement. If you’re able to trade patches with somebody from a different agency or a state, or country, it’s amazing.”
“I can do both. I am going to do both … I like to prove people wrong.”
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