Contender Series Week 5: Bantamweights Debut as 20 Contracts Handed Out

Dana White's Contender Series is halfway through Season 10, and the numbers tell you exactly how it's gone. Twenty contracts have already been handed out across eight divisions, and after Week 4 produced five graduates for a second time, a record haul is genuinely on the table. Fifteen of the first 20 bouts ended inside the distance — eight in the opening round, five of those in under a minute.

Tuesday night at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas also marks a milestone on the schedule: bantamweight makes its Season 10 debut, the last men's division that hadn't yet been represented. Every division that's sent two hopefuls into the cage has produced at least one signing, so the pressure's on the newcomers to keep that clean sheet intact.

The Light Heavyweight Main Event

The night closes with two undefeated 205-pounders in Quentin Pasley and Arlind Berisha, both chasing Week 2 winner Alik Lorenz onto the roster. Pasley, 24, trains under former DWCS fighter Nick Newell and has opened his pro career with three first-round finishes after going 7-for-7 with finishes as an amateur. He's been doing MMA for under four years and even made his boxing debut last month.

Berisha is the first Albanian ever to compete on the show, and he arrives at 5-0 — every single win a first-round finish, only one of which took longer than 90 seconds. At 6-foot-6 he's a genuine physical problem for anyone across from him.

Welterweights and a Fighting Nerds Prospect

Isaac Moreno takes on Reginaldo Junior in a welterweight scrap loaded with momentum. Moreno, a 28-year-old Texan, is 8-0 as a pro after going 5-0 as an amateur, with finishes in his last three — including a first-round stoppage of UFC veteran Darian Weeks last October. Junior fights out of the Fighting Nerds, the camp that launched Caio Borralho (18-2, now the UFC's #5 middleweight), Carlos Prates (24-7, #2 at welterweight) and Jean Silva (17-3, #6 featherweight). He's riding a five-fight streak with three first-round finishes.

Elsewhere, Slovakia's Martin Kozak (6-0, all finishes) faces short-notice replacement Christian Echols, who owns first-round stoppages in every one of his eight wins. And Kwon Won Il returns for a second straight season after dropping his last outing to a spinning back elbow, this time meeting Brazil's Apollo Gomes (12-2, 1 NC). Gomes fights out of Chute Boxe Diego Lima and says he wants to honor late teammate Allan Nascimento — the 22-7 UFC flyweight — with a contract of his own.