Dana White trashes UFC hopefuls after ‘weird night’ of Contender Series: ‘Don’t waste your time’

Contender Series, a run of live fights that airs on Tuesdays each summer, is now one of the main ways Dana White and his UFC team scout new talent.

The 2025 edition of the program kicked off last night. Unfortunately, it was a bit disappointing.

In a break from previous editions, White signed just two fighters after the episode, Ty Miller and Baysangur Susurkaev. That’s because most of the fights were quite underwhelming.

In fact, he had specific critiques for several of the fighters who didn’t earn contracts.

“Tough guy,” the UFC boss said of Yuri Panferov, who beat Christopher Ewert by decision but didn’t earn a contract. “He didn’t show me anything that made me say, ‘I have to have this guy. This guy needs to be in the UFC.’ Maybe next time, Yuri.’

“Radley [da Silva], I don’t know if you’ve ever watched the show or not, but that is not how you get yourself into the UFC,” he added, tearing into another Contender Series winner. “Next time, when you show up at the Contender Series, you’re going to make me say ‘I gotta have this guy.’”

White then set his crosshairs on Neemias Santana, who landed a pretty egregious illegal head butt in his decision win over Ilian Bouafia.

“[Neemias] Santana thought it was 1993,” he said. “Absolute deliberate head butt to the face.

“For a guy who just lost a point, I felt like he should have come out and tried to finish the fight. He didn’t do anything after the head butt either.”

Dana White gives piece of advice to future UFC hopefuls on Contender Series

All in all, it was a “weird night,” White told Sanko.

He capped it off be sending a message to future UFC hopefuls on Contender Series.

“Forget forget about me and the people that are watching,” White said. “Don’t waste your time. This is your opportunity. We only do this once a year. This is your time to shine.”

“If you’re coming here to the Contender Series and you don’t know how this show works, don’t even waste your time. Call the matchmakers and cancel your flight [to Las Vegas]. You know what we expect here. You know what we’re looking for, and it didn’t happen tonight.”