Dana White’s Contender Series returns to the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on October 13 for week 10 of its 2026 season. Five fights make up the card, each one carrying the promise of a UFC contract for the most impressive winners, and two unbeaten Americans headline the chase.
Two unbeaten Americans chasing a contract
William Rentz, who trains out of Tampa, Florida with Gracie Tampa South, enters his welterweight bout with a 5-2 record and five finishes. After working back from a string of injuries that kept him sidelined for months, he has won his last two fights by TKO and now meets Brazil’s Luis Francischinelli, 6-1. Jason Asher, who fights out of Mid City MMA in New Orleans, Louisiana, carries a perfect 5-0 record with every win coming by knockout or TKO, most of them inside the first round. He faces Greg Foster, 8-1, in a lightweight bout. Both Americans share a reputation as fast finishers, a profile UFC matchmakers say they prize in this short, three-round format.
Rentz summed up his approach in an interview with CFFC ahead of a previous win, describing himself as someone built to outlast an opponent over the course of a fight. Asher, for his part, has finished four of his five wins inside the first round, most recently with a barrage of elbows and punches against Cameron Graves in July 2026, a pace that makes him one of the fastest finishers on the card.
Former Muay Thai world champion Smilla Sundell on the bantamweight slate
Sweden’s Smilla Sundell, 21, is one of the most closely watched names on the card. A former Muay Thai prodigy, she became the youngest world champion in the sport’s history at 17 under the ONE Championship banner, successfully defending her title before losing it on the scale in 2024 despite winning that fight. She left the ONE roster in the summer of 2025 after exceeding the limit of the heaviest women’s weight class, then signed with American promotion Tuff-N-Uff to launch her MMA career in early 2026. Unbeaten in two fights, both by stoppage, she meets Brazil’s Aline Pereira, 3-2, at bantamweight.
Moroccan prospect Ilias Bulaid headlines against Brazilian veteran Erick Visconde
The featherweight main event pits unbeaten Moroccan prospect Ilias Bulaid, nicknamed The Blade and 9-0 as a pro, against Brazil’s Erick Visconde, nicknamed Sabugo and 17-3. Bulaid’s unblemished record makes him the favorite on paper, but Visconde has faced tougher competition over his career and ranks among the most experienced finishers on the card. The matchup was originally slated for earlier in the season before being moved to week 10, a reshuffle that reflects how hard it can be to line up prospects from different countries and promotions.
The rest of the card
At middleweight, two unbeaten Brazilians meet, Douglas Da Lapa, 6-0, against Davi Cabral, 7-0. Both fighters favor an aggressive style and look to finish inside the three-round limit, the kind of profile UFC matchmakers tend to reward on this show.
Da Lapa and Cabral both come from Brazilian regional circuits where finishes, rather than decisions, built their reputations, and neither has had to go to a judges scorecard as a professional. A win inside the distance on this stage tends to carry more weight with UFC matchmakers than a close decision, since the show is built around proving a fighter can perform under pressure in a short window.
How Contender Series works
Dana White created the show to find prospects outside the UFC’s usual scouting pipeline. Each week’s fights are capped at three rounds, and UFC matchmakers decide on the spot, right after each fight, whether to offer a contract, weighing the level of performance as much as the result. In the United States, the show airs on ESPN+. Internationally, including across continental Europe, it streams on UFC Fight Pass. This week’s five bouts go live from the UFC Apex at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT, 6 p.m. CT, 5 p.m. MT), which falls at midnight in the United Kingdom and 1 a.m. in central Europe on October 14. The full 2026 UFC schedule is available on our UFC schedule 2026 page, and results will be posted on our UFC results page.
