UFC News & FeaturesUFC Inks Ikram Aliskerov, Four Others on Week 8 of Dana White’s Contender Series
Ikram Aliskerov waltzed into the Ultimate Fighting Championship and nearly took someone else’s limb with him.
One of five prospective mixed martial artists signed by the UFC on Week 8 of Dana White’s Contender Series, the Eagle Fighting Championship alum submitted Mario Filipe de Sousa with a kimura in the first round of their middleweight showcase on Tuesday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Filipe de Sousa (15-3, 1-2 DWCS) raised the white flag 2:09 into Round 1 but not before suffering some apparent damage to his left shoulder.
Advertisement
Related » DWCS Week 8 Round-by-Round Scoring
Aliskerov has rattled off five consecutive victories and will be joined on the UFC roster by Farid Basharat, Trevor Peek, Bruna Emanuele Brasil and Daniel Marcos.
The unbeaten Basharat (9-0, 1-0 DWCS) rode educated kicks,
combination punching and takedowns laced with ground-and-pound to a
clear-cut unanimous decision over Allan
Begosso in a three-round bantamweight battle. Scores were
30-27, 30-26 and 30-26 marks from the cageside judiciary.
Begosso (7-2-1, 0-1 DWCS) found all avenues to potential success cut off by a supremely well-rounded opponent. Basharat chipped away with kicks to all levels, doubled up with a lightning-quick jab and executed takedowns whenever he sensed a possible shift in momentum. He put the finishing touches on a clean performance late in the third round, where he twice achieved full mount.
The 26-year-old Begosso has lost two of his last three bouts.
A former Ares Fight Series champion, Peek kept his perfect professional record intact and put away Malik Lewis with punches in the second round of their lightweight firefight. Peek (7-0, 1-0 DWCS) drew the curtain 2:37 into Round 2.
Lewis (5-1, 0-1 DWCS) had the Alabama native on the run for much of the first round, where he floored him with a right hand and connected with punishing knees to the head and body. However, he emptied his gas tank in pursuit of a finish that never materialized. Peek stormed out at the start of the second round as the fresher of the two men, dropped his diminished counterpart to all fours with a knee to the body, assumed a dominant position and prompted the stoppage with a sustained volley of strikes—first elbows and then punches.
Peek, 27, has stopped all seven of his opponents.
Meanwhile, Brasil exploited her height and reach advantages to the max, as she knocked out former Fusion Fight League champion Marnic Mann with a head kick in the second round of their women’s strawweight pairing. The previously unbeaten Mann (5-1, 0-1 DWCS) checked out 4:33 into Round 2.
Brasil (8-2-1, 1-0 DWCS) drew a noticeable wince from the Montanan with a front kick to the solar plexus in the opening seconds of the first round and never looked back. She kept Mann off-balance with a variety of strikes and tactical takedowns, consistently probing for weaknesses. In the final minute of the middle stanza, Brasil drifted into open space, set her feet and fired the fight-ending head kick. No follow-up shots were necessary.
The 29-year-old Brasil has won seven fights in a row, five of them via finish.
Finally, devastating leg kicks, multi-punch bursts and stellar takedown defense carried Marcos to a unanimous decision over Brandon Lewis in a three-round bantamweight tilt. All three judges scored it the same: 30-27 for Marcos (13-0, 1-0 DWCS), a former Sparta 300 champion who made up for lost time in his first appearance since December 2019.
Lewis (6-2, 0-2 DWCS) was behind the proverbial eight ball from the outset. Marcos dropped him to a knee with a front kick to the face and staggered him with a flying knee in the first round, then proceeded to blow apart his base with a series of vicious kicks to the lead leg. A visibly compromised Lewis did all he could to keep it competitive, but he was physically and technically outmatched.
More
