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Dana White’s Contender Series in its fourth year of existence
continues to infuse the
Ultimate Fighting Championship with untapped talent. Four more competitors—welterweights Louis Cosce
and Orion
Cosce, strawweight Cheyanne
Buys and heavyweight Josh
Parisian—were signed by the promotion on
Week 3 of DWCS on Tuesday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Since
the season started on Aug. 4, a total of 12 fighters have punched
their tickets to the UFC.
Lost Boys Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai’s Louis Cosce cut down
Victor
Reyna with punches in the first round of their welterweight
showcase. Reyna (11-5), who had never before been knocked out, bit
the dust just 72 seconds into Round 1. Cosce (7-0) elected to
forego the feeling-out process and rushed out throwing heat with
kicks and punches. He sent Reyna crashing to the canvas with a
chopping overhand left, pounced on his fallen adversary and let
the punches go until referee Chris Tognoni had seen enough.
Cosce has finished all seven of his opponents inside one round.
Buys Routs Overmatched Rose
Fortis
MMA’s Cheyanne
Buys flexed her superiority in all phases, as she laid claim to
a one-sided unanimous decision over Hilarie
Rose in a three-round strawweight scrap. Buys (5-1) swept the
scorecards with 30-27 marks from all three judges, extending her
run of consecutive victories to four.
Rose (4-2) was outmatched at every turn. Buys flurried on her with
punches, opened a cut near the
CES MMA mainstay’s left eye with a close-quarters elbow strike
in the second round and connected with consequential counters
throughout the 15-minute fight. She had Rose reeling in the third,
where she clipped her with an overhand right and paired standing
elbows to the head with sweeping hooks to the body. Buys even
dominated the Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt in their ground
exchanges.
The loss snapped Rose’s four-fight winning streak.
Resilient Cosce Stops Dixon
Team Alpha Male prospect Orion Cosce stopped Matt Dixon
with punches from the mounted crucifix in the third round of their
welterweight affair. Cosce (7-0) slammed the door 4:42 into Round
3, scoring the third-latest finish in Dana White’s Contender Series
history.
Dixon (9-1) took charge in the first round, where he executed three
takedowns, employed a frustrating clinch and pieced together
punching combinations. However, Cosce found another gear in the
middle stanza. He wore down Dixon with airtight takedown defense,
an occasional overhand left and knees from the clinch. Cosce had
more zip on his punches in the third round and exploited a rapidly
deteriorating opponent. He slammed Dixon to the mat, settled in
half guard and climbed to full mount. From there, the
ground-and-pound flowed. Cosce continued to advance, moved to the crucifix and ended it with an endless
barrage of punches.
The 26-year-old Cosce has finished all seven of his victories.
That’s it!
Did @JoshParisian
finally earn his spot?Watch the rest of the card on ESPN+ pic.twitter.com/SqOiKZ8eLD
— UFC (@ufc)
August 19, 2020
Brutish Parisian Brutalizes Johnson
Scorpion Fighting System representative Josh
Parisian put away former King of
the Cage champion Chad
Johnson in the first round of their heavyweight confrontation.
Parisian (13-3) drew it to a close 3:43 into Round 1, moving to 2-0
on Dana White’s Contender Series.
Johnson (6-2) struggled to navigate the size and power disparity
against an opponent who outweighed him by 50 pounds. Parisian
pushed the
Roufusport product to the canvas from the clinch, assaulted him
with hammerfists and elbows, moved to side control and made a pass
at a straight armbar. From there, he moved to mount, smashed Johnson with an elbow and punched him
unconscious.
The 31-year-old Parisian will ride a six-fight winning streak into
his next assignment.
Cross Stymies Unbeaten Syler
Suffocating top control, positional advances and punishing
ground-and-pound carried
Michigan Top Team export Kenneth
Cross to a unanimous decision over the previously unbeaten
Kevin
Syler in a three-round lightweight pairing. All three judges
scored it for Cross (11-3): 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28.
Syler (10-1) was shockingly ineffective. Cross ran circles around
him on the ground, denied his bids for submissions and cut through
his guard with ease. He moved to Syler’s back in the second round,
threatened with an arm-triangle choke and ultimately advanced to
full mount before cutting loose with elbows and punches. Fatigue
set in on “The Boss” across the final five minutes, but Syler could
not capitalize. He scrambled to the back with roughly a minute to
go in the bout, fished for openings and looked on helplessly as
time ticked away.
Cross, 25, has won five fights in a row. 
