Australian Tom Nolan Leads Wave of Five UFC Signees on Week 1 of DWCS

Tom Nolan did not disappoint.

The undefeated Team Compton Training Centre prospect was one of five hopefuls to book spots on the Ultimate Fighting Championship roster during Week 1 of Dana White’s Contender Series, as he put away Bogdan Grad with punches in the first round of their lightweight showcase on Tuesday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Grad (11-2, 0-1 DWCS) succumbed to blows 1:23 into Round 1, suffering his first loss since Sept. 25, 2020.

Nolan (6-0, 1-0 DWCS) offered the Ettl Brothers MMA export no opportunity to operate. The 6-foot-3 Australian floored Grad with a surgical straight left, jumped in top position, shed an attempted armbar and applied his ground-and-pound before he returned to his feet. Nolan flurried again soon after and slammed a concussive left hook into his opponent’s jaw. Grad crashed to the canvas in a dazed state and ate a follow-up standing-to-ground left before referee Kerry Hatley could arrive on the scene.

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Middleweight Cesar Almeida, heavyweight Caio Machado, bantamweight Payton Talbott and flyweight Kevin Borjas rounded out the latest wave of UFC signees.

Almeida took a unanimous decision from Legacy Fighting Alliance titleholder Lucas Fernando in their three-round battle at 185 pounds. Scores were 30-27, 29-28 and 29-27. Almeida (4-0, 1-0 DWCS), who weathered some minor adversity in the first and third rounds, did his best work in the middle stanza. There, the Brazilian kickboxer sprawled into top position, buried elbows into Fernando’s face, climbed to full mount and appeared to be within reach of a finish; Almeida even moved to a mounted reverse triangle at point. Fernando (9-2, 0-1 DWCS) never fully rebounded, his run of four straight victories at an end.

Meanwhile, Machado outstruck a woefully inept and inactive Kevin Szaflarski to a unanimous decision in a three-round heavyweight affair. All three cageside judges scored it the same: 30-27 for Machado (8-1-1, 1-0 DWCS), who won for the seventh time in as many outings.

Szaflarski (11-2, 0-1 DWCS) offered almost nothing of note from an offensive standpoint. Machado connected with kicks to the inside and outside of the Pole’s lead leg, winging hooks and close-range knee strikes. Perhaps most importantly, the Battlefield Fight League champion shut down all of Szaflarski’s takedown attempts. On the feet, the Akademia Sportow Walki Wilanow product looked uncomfortable and out of sorts. With virtually no threat of return fire, Machado scored in the standup throughout the third round, mixing in a front kick to the body at one point.

The defeat closed the book on an 11-fight winning streak for Szaflarski.

Further down the card, Talbott kept his perfect professional record intact with a unanimous decision over Fight Ready standout Reyes Cortez Jr. in their three-round bantamweight tilt. Talbott (6-0, 1-0 DWCS) swept the scorecards with 29-28 marks from all three members of the judiciary.

Cortez (7-3, 0-2 DWCS)—the older brother of UFC women’s flyweight Tracy Cortez—started strong with sturdy leg kicks and well-timed clinches. Success was short-lived. Talbott found his rhythm in the second round, called upon overwhelming forward pressure and unleashed his considerable weaponry, from wicked left hooks to the body and snappy one-twos to punishing jabs and sneaky knees up the middle. His handiwork resulted in a horizontal gash above Cortez’s left eye that was significant enough to warrant an examination from the cageside physician. Talbott picked up where he left off in the third, continued to pile up points and never looked back.

The setback was the first for Cortez in nearly two years.

Finally, crisp combination punching and a superior gas tank carried Borjas to a unanimous decision over American Top Team’s Victor Dias in a three-round flyweight pairing. All three cageside judges struck 29-28 scorecards for Borjas (9-1, 1-0 DWCS), who has rattled off four consecutive victories.

Dias (11-3, 0-1 DWCS) executed multiple takedowns in the first round, applied some mild ground-and-pound and floated between full mount in the back. However, he lost his way from there. Borjas tore into him with clean one-twos—his work resulted in two grotesque hematomas, one on the Brazilian’s forehead and another underneath the left eye—and savage left hooks to the body. Dias was a spent force for much of Round 3, where he failed to corral the Pitbull Martial Arts Center-trained Peruvian on the ground and was reduced to flailing punches, the vast majority of them catching only air.

The loss snapped Dias’ five-fight winning streak.