Esteban Ribovics Leads Parade of Five UFC Signees on Dana White’s Contender Series

Esteban Ribovics forced the issue, defense be damned.

The undefeated Nova Uniao prospect booked his spot on the Ultimate Fighting Championship roster, as he punched out Thomas Paull in the first round of their lightweight showcase during Week 4 of Dana White’s Contender Series on Tuesday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Paull (11-4) was cooked just 90 seconds into Round 1.

Ribovics (11-0) waded through considerable fire and walked the Englishman into a devastating right hook. Paull collapsed downward, and he was in no condition to recover before eating a subsequent punching volley that necessitated the stoppage.

The 26-year-old Ribovics was one of five competitors signed by the UFC, along with Claudio Ribeiro, Nazim Sadykhov, Hailey Cowan and Jose Johnson.

Ribeiro wowed the crowd with a violent knockout of Ivan Valenzuela in the first round of their middleweight confrontation. Valenzuela (8-2) met his end 25 seconds into Round 1, his five-fight winning streak having run its course. It was the fourth-fastest knockout in DWCS history.

Ribeiro (10-2) tested the waters with his legs, spun around his Mexican opponent with a low kick and countered an ill-advised spinning backfist with a crushing left hook. A dazed and confused Valenzuela hit the deck, then ate a few ancillary shots before referee Mark Smith could arrive on the scene.

The 30-year-old Ribeiro has pieced together six straight victories.

Meanwhile, Serra-Longo Fight Team’s Sadykhov punched out Ahmad Suhail Hasanzada in the third round of their lightweight clash. An unconscious Hasanzada (8-2) checked out 1:59 into Round 3, as he suffered his first setback since December 2019.

Sadykhov (7-1) roared out of the gate, doubled over the Team Alpha Male rep with a spinning back kick to the body, powered into top position and unleashed a volley of savage elbows, one of them opening a cut that resulted in significant blood loss. He never looked back. After a relatively competitive middle stanza, Sadykhov turned up the heat again in the third. He backed Hasanzada to the fence and followed a right hook to the body with a right hook upstairs. Out went the lights.

The 28-year-old Sadykhov has won seven fights in a row, six of them finishes.

Elsewhere, damaging clinch work and effective topside grappling carried Cowan to a split decision over Astra Fight Team’s Claudia Leite in a three-round women’s bantamweight affair. All three judges struck 29-28 scorecards, two of them siding with the resurgent Cowan (7-2).

Leite (8-3) found herself playing catchup early on. Cowan bottled up the Brazilian along the fence, connected with a few knee strikes to the midsection and then hacked open a cut with a close-range elbow. Blood streamed from the wound near Leite’s right eye and necessitated an exam from the cageside physician. She endured, pressed onward in the second round and managed to turn the tide, threatening with a tight arm-triangle choke at one point. Cowan executed a takedown inside the first minute of Round 3, applied some elbow-laced ground-and-pound and piled up valuable control time—enough to allow her to withstand a late reversal from her game counterpart.

Cowan, 30, has rattled off seven victories in eight appearances.

Finally, Johnson outstruck, outgrappled and outhustled reigning Cage Warriors Fighting Championship titleholder Jack Cartwright to a unanimous decision in a frenetic three-round bantamweight tilt. Johnson (15-7) swept the scorecards with 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 marks from the cageside judiciary.

Cartwright (10-1) was competitive throughout the 15-minute encounter. However, outside of an attempted anaconda choke from the Brit, the moments that mattered belonged to Johnson. He achieved full mount on multiple occasions, threatened with his own submissions and bludgeoned the previously unbeaten Cartwright with elbow-laced ground-and-pound.

Johnson will carry a three-fight winning streak into his first UFC assignment.