DWCS Season 10 Signs Off With Four New UFC Contracts in Week 10

Dana White's Contender Series closed out Season 10 on October 14 with four more fighters hearing the four words that change careers. Welterweight Luis Francischinelli, middleweight Douglas da Lapa, lightweight Greg Foster and women's bantamweight Smilla Sundell all walked out of the Meta APEX with UFC contracts, pushing the season's total up to a tally that tied the record for most deals ever handed out in a single DWCS campaign.

The headline act, at least in terms of raw entertainment, was Foster. At 34, he's older than the usual Contender Series prospect, and White has rarely hidden his preference for younger signings. Foster forced the issue anyway, grinding out a unanimous 29-28 decision over Jason Asher across three rounds of relentless pressure. All three judges saw it the same way.

Foster Argues His Own Case

Backstage, Foster leaned into the age question before anyone could use it against him, comparing himself to a low-mileage 2025 Camry — plenty of experience, not a lot of wear. He argued that modern recovery science makes older fighters more useful than ever, and that his breakout is just arriving later than most. White bought it, telling Foster he opened the show exactly the way he likes it opened and that he'd never been this excited about a 34-year-old joining the roster.

da Lapa gave White a different kind of show. The Brazilian striker peppered the famously durable Davi Cabral for two rounds, nearly ending it late in the second before finally dropping him and finishing with ground strikes early in the third. White called Cabral a tank and praised the partnership that made the fight, but the night belonged to da Lapa, who at 27 said he'd been training since 14 and fighting seriously since 16.

Francischinelli brought the physical outlier of the group. Standing six-foot-six and competing at 170 pounds, he looks wrong for the weight class in the best possible way. He weathered an aggressive early surge from Will Rentz before putting him away with strikes midway through round one. White noted the new 7-1 record and joked the welterweight is "10 feet tall," admitting he's curious how that frame translates in a stacked 170-pound division.

For Francischinelli, the deal capped a 16-year climb from a small town and a hard upbringing. da Lapa summed up the mood for the whole class — still trying to process standing next to a man he'd only ever seen on a phone screen, and already clear-eyed that the contract is the start, not the finish. Season 10 is done. The real work begins now.