Alex Pereira attended DWCS Week 9, four UFC contracts awarded

Light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira attended Tuesday’s Dana White’s Contender Series in Las Vegas and witnessed the last man to beat him in kickboxing be awarded a UFC contract.  

Pereira played a role in UFC CEO Dana White‘s decision to grant the Russian a contract.  Pereira and Vakhitov fought twice in kickboxing with Pereira winning their first fight via split decision and Vakhitov evening the score in the rematch by majority decision.  On Tuesday, Vakhitov scored a first-round finish over Frenchman Islem Masraf.  After the fight, Pereira told White to sign Vakhitov.  

Dana White said that Alex Pereira told him to sign Artem Vakhitov after his knockout win on #DWCS 👀 pic.twitter.com/ByV4mdcJIS

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) October 9, 2024

Four UFC contracts were awarded on Tuesday.  Artem Vakhitov, Kody Steele, Mário Pinto, and Islam Dulatov punched their tickets to the big show.

  Dana White’s Contender Series Week 9 Results

• Artem Vakhitov def. Islem Masraf via TKO (punches) – Round 1, 4:23
• Kody Steele def. Chasen Blair via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 4:07
• Mario Pinto def. Lucas Camacho via knockout (punches) – Round 1, 1:43
• Islam Dulatov def. Vanilto Antunes via knockout (elbow) – Round 1, 2:44
• Sean Gauci def. Anthony Drilich via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)