LAS VEGAS -- It was the most gut-wrenching moment of Season 8 of Dana White's Contender Series. Torrez Finney had just won his fight on Dana White's Contender Series on Aug. 20, his second on DWCS in less than a year, and sat with the night's other winners just outside the Octagon where they'd just fought at Apex awaiting White's critique.
The Contender Series has become the UFC's primary vehicle to fill its roster, but it creates some agonizing moments as the fighters wait to hear if White liked what he saw from them and walks to bring them aboard to the world's largest MMA promotion.
For 10 weeks in the summer and early fall, the UFC puts on five fights at Apex, with White, its president and CEO; Hunter Campbell, its chief business officer; and matchmakers Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard closely watching. Those four will decide the fate of the 10 athletes who compete.
On Aug. 20, Finney faced Cam Rowston on Week 2 of Season 8. He won his fight by decision, but not much else. The other four winners that night were given contracts. Finney had to sit and listen to White eviscerate him.
"You would get absolutely decimated in the UFC with the performance that you put on tonight," White said to Finney, a two-time Georgia state high school heavyweight wrestling champion and a fullback at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga on Aug. 20.
Things changed in a big way on Tuesday, six weeks later. Finney was back as a late replacement, and he made certain that he didn't make it hard for White to offer him a contract. He went after Abdellah Er-Ramy furiously and finished him with a vicious ground-and-pound assault at 4:10 of the first. When it was over, he raced over to where White was seated and let out a guttural roar.
"I said to his whole family, and him, that you can't deny that that kid showed up with a completely different energy tonight," White said at the post-fight news conference. "It was not just his fighting; his whole attitude and personality was completely different tonight."
Finney could have sulked and been butt-hurt by White's comment. They were harsh and Finney did win. But he took it in stride and knew that to get where he wanted to be, it was going to be a bit more of a struggle.
And so he went back to work to improve his game. When he got the call to come back for another shot -- and by winning on Tuesday he became the show's first three-time winner -- he knew he had to step it up. But he took White's words as they were meant, as constructive criticism.
"I grew up with tough skin," Finney said. "I didn't think much of it because, one, I travel with a lot of high-level guys and I knew that just wasn't true. I understand it was based off of that perfromance and it is what it is. But overall, I just used that to fuel me. I knew going into this fight I had to really show something and be able to get my get out of here. That was the plan, to get him out of here in the first round and I really felt I had the capabilities of doing that as I just showcased. But I was really ready."
Seeing Finney celebrate after his win was one of those moments that reminds us why we love sports. Nothing can produce stunning and unexpected moments like a motivated athlete with a huge heart.
Finney proved that in a big way on Tuesday, and he's now a UFC fighter with a 10-0 record, to boot.
But true to his nature, he wasn't boasting or bragging.
"I have a lot of things still to work on and clean up," he said.
The fact he did that before instead of sulking about his bad fortune is why he has his contract in the first place.
Complete results of DWCS Season 8, Week 8
• Diyar Nurgozhay TKO2 Bartosz Szewczyk via strikes, 3:32.
• Alberto Montes SUB2 Carlos Calderon, anaconda choke, 2:38.
• David Martinez W3 Xavier Franklin, 30-27 x 3.
• Torrez Finney TKO1 Abdellah Er-Ramy via strikes, 4:10
• Jacobe Smith TKO2 Christien Savoie via strikes, 2:55.
* Contract winners in bold