LAS VEGAS -- Three of the four fighters who won Tuesday during Week 5 of Dana White's Contender Series at Apex earned UFC contracts, including Navajo Stirling, who put Phil Latu to sleep in the second round of their light heavyweight bout with a brilliant left hook to the chin.
Nicolle Caliari, who won via armbar, and Josias Musasa, who won by split decision over Otari Tanzilovi, also were given contracts.
The bigger, though, were the two who didn't get contracts. White, the UFC president/CEO, brusquely said, "I'm not interested," in Yousri Belgaroui after Belgaroui used a knee to the face in the third round to stop Taiga Iwasaki. Belgaroui had multiple fouls for eye pokes and was deducted a point.
White didn't like the fight or Belgaroui's potential and didn't pull any punches.
"He was an 11-1 favorite against a guy who took the fight on short notice," White said. "He's a 6-foot-5 middleweight. Instead of closing his hands and using them to keep [Iwasaki] off of him to finish him, he poked him in the eyes five or six times, or four or five times. Whatever it was. He did not impress me tonight. I'm not interested."
White was interested in Kody Steele, but his fight was canceled when his opponent in their lightweight bout, Quemuel Ottoni, opted not to fight. Ottoni had his hands wrapped and then took them off. UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby ran to his locker room and talked to him.
Ottoni had his hands re-wrapped and then changed his mind again, opting not to fight. White paid Steele his win and show money and said he'll put him on a future episode of the series to give him a chance to earn his way into the UFC.
White said Caliari appeared nervous at the start, but he said he liked the way she stuck with it and got the finish.
He said he thought that Musasa, who is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, lost the fight. But he said he was impressed with Musasa's talent and felt he could develop into something.
"I imagine there aren't a lot of good training partners in Congo," said White, who said he thought bringing Musasa to Las Vegas and having him train there would hasten his development.