Esteban Ribovics Leads Parade of Five UFC Signees on Dana White’s Contender Series

Esteban
Ribovics
forced the issue, defense be damned.

The undefeated Nova Uniao prospect booked his spot on the
Ultimate Fighting Championship
roster, as he punched out
Thomas
Paull
in the first round of their lightweight showcase during

Week 4
of
Dana White’s Contender Series
on Tuesday at the UFC Apex in Las
Vegas. Paull (11-4) was cooked just 90 seconds into Round 1.

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Ribovics (11-0) waded through considerable fire and walked the
Englishman into a devastating right hook.
Paull collapsed downward, and he was in no condition to recover
before eating a subsequent punching volley that necessitated the
stoppage
.

The 26-year-old Ribovics was one of five competitors signed by the
UFC, along with Claudio
Ribeiro
, Nazim
Sadykhov
, Hailey
Cowan
and Jose
Johnson
.

Ribeiro wowed the crowd with a violent knockout of Ivan
Valenzuela
in the first round of their middleweight
confrontation. Valenzuela (8-2) met his end 25 seconds into Round
1, his five-fight winning streak having run its course.

It was the fourth-fastest knockout in DWCS
history
.

Ribeiro (10-2) tested the waters with his legs, spun around his
Mexican opponent with a low kick and countered an ill-advised
spinning backfist with a crushing left hook. A dazed and confused
Valenzuela hit the deck, then ate a few ancillary shots before
referee Mark Smith could arrive on the scene.

The 30-year-old Ribeiro has pieced together six straight
victories.

Meanwhile, Serra-Longo Fight Team’s Sadykhov punched out Ahmad
Suhail Hasanzada
in the third round of their lightweight clash.
An unconscious Hasanzada (8-2)
checked out 1:59 into Round 3
, as he suffered his
first setback since December 2019.

Sadykhov (7-1) roared out of the gate, doubled over the Team Alpha
Male rep with a spinning back kick to the body, powered into top
position and unleashed a volley of savage elbows, one of them
opening a cut that resulted in significant blood loss. He never
looked back. After a relatively competitive middle stanza, Sadykhov
turned up the heat again in the third. He backed Hasanzada to the
fence and followed a right hook to the body with a right hook
upstairs. Out went the lights.

The 28-year-old Sadykhov has won seven fights in a row, six of them
finishes.

Elsewhere, damaging clinch work and effective topside grappling
carried Cowan to a split decision over Astra Fight Team’s Claudia
Leite
in a three-round women’s bantamweight affair. All three
judges struck 29-28 scorecards, two of them siding with the
resurgent Cowan (7-2).

Leite (8-3) found herself playing catchup early on. Cowan bottled
up the Brazilian along the fence, connected with a few knee strikes
to the midsection and then hacked open a cut with a close-range
elbow. Blood streamed from the wound near Leite’s right eye and
necessitated an exam from the cageside physician. She endured,
pressed onward in the second round and managed to turn the tide,
threatening with a tight arm-triangle choke at one point. Cowan
executed a takedown inside the first minute of Round 3, applied
some elbow-laced ground-and-pound and piled up valuable control
time—enough to allow her to withstand a late reversal from her game
counterpart.

Cowan, 30, has rattled off seven victories in eight
appearances.

Finally, Johnson outstruck, outgrappled and outhustled reigning
Cage Warriors Fighting Championship titleholder Jack
Cartwright
to a unanimous decision in a frenetic three-round
bantamweight tilt. Johnson (15-7) swept the scorecards with 30-27,
29-28 and 29-28 marks from the cageside judiciary.

Cartwright (10-1) was competitive throughout the 15-minute
encounter. However, outside of an attempted anaconda choke from the
Brit, the moments that mattered belonged to Johnson. He achieved
full mount on multiple occasions, threatened with his own
submissions and bludgeoned the previously unbeaten Cartwright with
elbow-laced ground-and-pound.

Johnson will carry a three-fight winning streak into his first UFC
assignment.

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