Dana White's Contender Series Preview | Season 6, Week 3

Former Dan Hodge Trophy winner Bo Nickal looks to earn a UFC contract in his second professional appearance, while San Antonio’s Zachary Borrego looks to throw a wrench in those plans and secure a contract for himself.

The nation’s most outstanding wrestler in 2019, Nickal was a three-time NCAA Division I National Champion for the Penn State Nittany Lions before transitioning to mixed martial arts following the US Olympic Team Trials in April 2021. He won his first amateur fight in September of that year, a second six weeks later, and made his successful pro debut in June, collecting a 33-second stoppage win under the iKON FC banner.

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A former football player at Angelo State University, Borrego made the move into MMA only slightly sooner than Nickal, making his amateur debut at the close of 2020. He logged five appearances in 2021 and turned pro earlier this year, earning victories in February, May, and June under the Fury FC shingle to arrive in Las Vegas on a three-fight winning streak.

Nickal is one of the best collegiate wrestlers to transition to MMA in years and all eyes will be on him Tuesday night. Will he live up to the hype or can Borrego swoop in and steal the show?

Paulo Renato Junior vs. Jamal Pogues

Streaking Brazilian Paulo Renato Junior squares off with returning Contender Series alum Jamal Pogues in the second heavyweight fight of the season.

Entering on a nine-fight winning streak that includes three victories in four months last year following a nearly four-year layoff, Renato is the latest arrival at the UFC APEX from Brazil with an impressive record that is difficult to decipher. He hasn’t faced much in the way of name brand competition, but neither had Vinicius Salvador last week, and the flyweight certainly showed he belonged.

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Renato will look to do the same this week.

Pogues earned a quality win over Marcos Brigagao on Season 3 but failed to secure a contract and has only fought twice since, suffering a submission loss to Alex Polizzi in an LFA light heavyweight title fight before defeating Tim Hiley seven months later. It will have been 23 months since his last appearance when he steps into the cage on Tuesday, but he’s still just 26 years old and showed promise before his hiatus, so it will be interesting to see what he brings to the table this week.

There is always room for new heavyweights on the roster, so you have to think that if either of these men is able to go out and turn in an impressive performance, they could find themselves competing in the Octagon before the year is out.

Erik Silva vs. Anvar Boynazarov

Venezuela’s Erik Silva faces off with undefeated Anvar Boynazarov of Uzbekistan in this featherweight matchup in the middle of the card.

Sporting an 8-1 record, Silva arrives in Las Vegas on a seven-fight winning streak, having earned his last four victories by first-round rear-naked choke. His win over Edgar Garcia Cabello in February earned “King” the Lux Fight League featherweight title, and now the Latin American hopeful looks to carry that over into a win on Tuesday and a UFC contract.

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Unbeaten in three pro fights, Boynazarov has trained with a host of familiar names and quality teams over the years, including the crew at Fusion X-Cel, American Top Team, and most recently, the all-star cast at Kill Cliff FC, formerly Sanford MMA. He made the move to MMA at the end of 2020 following a lengthy career in kickboxing and has yet to go beyond the two-minute mark of the first round.

Given each man’s individual penchant for finishing quickly, don’t be surprised if the judges aren’t needed for this one.

Edgar Chairez vs. Clayton Carpenter

For the third straight week, flyweights make an appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series, as Edgar Chairez squares off with Clayton Carpenter.

A long-time friend and training partner of interim flyweight champ Brandon Moreno, Chairez touches down in the desert having won each of his last two fights and brandishing an 8-3 record overall. The 26-year-old is tall for the division at five-foot-seven and will surely be spurred on by Moreno’s title-winning effort at UFC 277 a couple weeks ago.

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Part of the next generation of young talents coming out of The MMA Lab, Carpenter is 5-0 as a pro with four finishes, including back-to-back first-round wins in under a minute. The 26-year-old went 6-1 as an amateur and has come up surrounded by elite talent and coaches, which makes him one to keep close tabs on Tuesday and beyond.

Will Chairez join Moreno on the UFC roster, or will Carpenter become the next member of the outstanding Arizona team to matriculate to the Octagon?

Sandra Lavado vs. Karolina Wojcik

The first pair of women to compete this season do so in Week 3’s opener, as Sandra Lavado and Karolina Wojcik throw down in the strawweight division.

Lavado is a 28-year-old from Peru with a 10-2 record and riding a three-fight winning streak. She’s spent time training with the likes of Alexa Grasso and Enrique Barzola in the past, and her two losses came to the same woman, Karla Elizabeth Sanchez Lozano, so the fact that she’s not lined up across from her this week might bode well for her chances of extending her run of success.

Wojcik will certainly have something to say about that, though, as the “Polish Assassin” also enters on a three-fight winning streak with dreams of competing in the UFC dominating her thoughts. Her first career loss came against current UFC fighter Cheyanne Vlismas, whom she’s spent the last several weeks training alongside at Xtreme Couture in preparation for this contest.

One of these women will run their winning streak to four and give themselves a chance to potentially compete in the Octagon next time out and the other will be forced to regroup. Figuring out who fills each role should be fun.