Dana White's Contender Series Week 2: Four more UFC contracts awarded

Two Canadians competed Tuesday night on Dana White’s Contender Series but neither went home with a UFC contract.

Andreas Gustafsson finished Pat Pytlik of Kitchener, Ont., with a series of knees in a featured welterweight bout, and Woodbridge, Ont.’s Michael Imperato lost a unanimous decision to Cortavious Romious in bantamweight action on Week 2 of DWCS Season 8.

Gustafsson, a popular 11-2 fighter from Sweden, pressed forward with an aggressive wrestling attack and was relentless with hard standing elbows.

Pytlik, 35, was on the defensive from the opening seconds of the fight but ended the first round landing a series of hard punches in tight that appeared to briefly affect Gustafsson.

Gustafsson, 33, had Pytlik’s face swollen due to the elbows before landing four consecutive knees that ended the fight three minutes into the second round.

Gustafsson was one of four fighters to earn a UFC contract on the night.

Pytlik and Imperato both earned their chances on DWCS thanks to January wins at a Unified MMA event in Toronto during UFC 297 fight week.

Romious hurt Imperato with a liver kick 90 seconds into the opening round of their 135-pound matchup but the fighter out of Xtreme Couture Toronto survived. Imperato landed a few solid punches but Romious landed more and at a higher accuracy.

The pair also exchanged low blows in the third round after which the referee spoke with both fighters to warn them about where they were aiming.

Romious appeared on DWCS last October and was knocked out quickly by Ramon Taveras. He swept the scorecards against Imperato to get his hands raised Tuesday.

In other action, Rizvan Kuniev extended his winning streak in the heavyweight division by finishing Hugo Cunha with strikes in the waning seconds of the opening round.

A big Kuniev knee to the body was the beginning of the end for Cunha. Kuniev, 31, has won 11 fights in a row dating back to 2017.

Bantamweights kicked off the action at a brisk pace with Australia’s Cody Haddon taking out American Billy Brand within one round in the opening bout of the evening.

Haddon dropped Brand with a clean left hook midway through the opening round and moments later sunk in a rear-naked choke that forced a tap.

Haddon improved to 7-1 as a pro and his lone loss was a 2021 decision to fellow Aussie and recent UFC flyweight title challenger Steve Erceg.

“Aw, that’s sick,” Haddon said of the punch he landed that sent Brand to the canvas when shown it on replay.

Torrez Finney improved to 9-0 as a pro and 2-0 on DWCS but UFC president Dana White told the fighter he thinks he would get “absolutely decimated” in the UFC and needs a few more wins before getting a shot at the Octagon.

Finney earned a submission win over Yuri Panferov last year on DWCS but did not earn a contract. Finney was coming off a highlight 93-second knockout in May, his only fight since his first DWCS appearance.

The powerful 5-foot-8 middleweight used a big right hand to gain entry on takedowns against his 6-foot-2 opponent. Finney, 25, took Rowston down at will in the first round and had consistent success throughout the 15-minute contest. Both found modest success on the feet when the fight was at distance. 

Rowston, a regular training partner of Israel Adesanya at City Kickboxing, knocked out Finney’s mouthpiece with a punch late in the second round and had more success as the fight progressed. He won the final round on the scorecards and landed a big knee up the middle late in the third round that left Finney bloody when exiting the cage following his win.

DWCS Season 8, Week 2 Official Results:

-- Andreas Gustafsson def. Pat Pytlik via technical knockout at 3:20 of Round 2

-- Rizvan Kuniev def. Hugo Cunha via technical knockout at 4:59 of Round 1

-- Cortavious Romious def. Michael Imperato via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)

-- Torrez Finney def. Cam Rowston via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

-- Cody Haddon def. Billy Brand via submission (rear-naked choke) at 3:09 of Round 1

UFC contract recipients: Cody Haddon, Cortavious Romious, Rizvan Kuniev, Andreas Gustafsson