It is officially that time of year again as Contender Series returns for 2026. This season is a bit of an odd one as honestly most of the announced fights are squash matches designed to make certain fighters look good. However, last year we did see some big upsets such as Iwo Baraniewski beating Mahamed Aly and Dani Barbir fumbling a free win against Mantas Kondratavicius. This years matchmaking is a bit more egregious though and such matchmaking has already begun with the flyweight fight on Week 1.

JON KUNNEMAN (10-0) vs. JOSEPH KROPSCHOT (8-3) – Middleweight

JON KUNNEMAN 10-0 (3 KO, 7 SUB)

Strong wrestler in excellent shape for middleweight. Nearly all of his fights go the same way – He shoots a take down, gets it, then ends up in full mount where he either finishes the fight with ground and pound or gets an arm triangle choke. 9 of his wins come in the first round, with only his pro debut ending in round 2. There is footage out there for all of his fights but it's hard to know if he is any good as he is fighting some of the worst competition I have ever seen. Every opponent of his either pulls guillotine or just accepts the take down and loses immediately. His best win is over Matt Friesen, but Friesen was 40 years old at the time and was fighting for the second time after a ten year layoff. Not much is known about Kunneman's striking as he has never needed to use it. I saw him throw a bunch of kicks against Maika Graf but aside from that I have only really seen him throw looping punches to close the distance. The optics regarding Kunneman's career aren't great either as apparently he has tried to avoid high level opponents up until now, even moving to Alaska to can crush some more. There is footage out there of his training with Justin Gaethje in his lead up to UFC 300 so he has spent time training at Elevation Fight Team as well.

JOSEPH KROPSCHOT 8-3 (2 KO, 6 SUB)

Kropschot is the LFA champion after defeating undefeated striker David Allakhverdiev by submission in round 2. He is 6'3″ and will be noticeably bigger than Kunneman especially since he was the bigger fighter out of the two when he fought against Cody Brundage in 2021. He strikes in a way that means his size and length are pretty irrelevant though as he ducks his head in this weird way that makes his arms appear shorter than they really are. I honestly can't explain it. it's just very odd. Nonetheless, I don't think he has any real power in his striking and like Kunneman he wants the fight on the ground so a lot of his striking is to just keep up by scoring points, or to set up a take down. When he does throw strikes he is mostly throwing straight punches and he likes to throw the jab often. There has been concerns about his durability but I don't think this is super truthful. He does have 2 KO losses but the loss to Cosce was more of a pity stoppage due to him gassing out badly. His KO loss to Daniel Compton was pretty bad even though it was just a TKO. That is a shocking loss to take though as Compton was striking like Terrance McKinney, throwing himself off balance and was pretty gassed after only a couple of minutes. In general I do worry about Kropschot's cardio as he was totally gassed at the end of round 1 against Cosce (in 2019), and then was gassed out against Brundage (in 2021). His cardio has looked fine since in those fights but even then I am unsure about how good his performances have actually been. I couldn't find his win over Mauricio Alonso, but Alonso was 44 at the time so I guess that doesn't matter. As for his win over Benson, I would say this is his best performance but the win has not aged well. In that fight he was able to find both striking and grappling success, but he struggled to get consistent control time. I didn't remember his performance against David Allakhverdiev correctly because he didn't look good in that fight. Allakhverdiev dropped him pretty bad in round 1 and then hurt him badly multiple times again. He even tried to Ryan Hall his way out of the fight at the end of round 1 and just looked a bit silly. He did eventually win the fight by getting somewhat lucky with a standing rear naked choke. Overall, I actually left my tape study quite unimpressed and it seems like my initial lean was a bit off. I thought Kropschot was more of a dominant wrestler but it seems like he is just a BJJ nerd with bad cardio.

PREDICTION:

This is a very hard fight to predict in my opinion. On one hand, Jon Kunneman has looked dominant against abysmal competition. On the other hand, Kropschot has fought good competition but has needed to fight though adversity to get to this point. Losing to Orion Cosce and Cody Brundage are bad looks but they are still losses to up and coming guys who eventually did make it to the UFC. Stylistically this is a fight between two guys who want the fight on the ground. Kunneman has shown a dominant ground and pound ability as well as submission from top control. Kropschot is more BJJ nerd-like, showcasing armbar attempts and triangles from bottom position in his fights against Compton and Brundage. Kropschot's problem is that he seems to not have great top control as he goes chasing for submissions. It is hard to tell who is the better wrestler between the two but I think whoever ends up on top will likely win the fight. We have never seen Kunneman fight through adversity and honestly we may not even see that here given the style of both fighters. I went in to tape study expecting to pick Kropschot but after looking into it I have to pick against my early lean. Depending on the odds, Kropschot could be a sneaky dog though, especially by submission. I am going to pick Kunneman to pull off his arm triangle choke again, as Brundage was able to set this up on Kropschot multiple times across multiple different rounds and Kunneman is an expert in this position.

Pick: Jon Kunneman by submission in round 1. Low confidence.

BILAL HASAN (8-0) vs. MRIDUL SAIKIA (9-1) – Flyweight

BILAL HASAN 8-0 (6 KO, 1 SUB, 1 DEC)

Bilal Hasan is the CFFC champion and has defended the title three times – all by knockout. He isn't the biggest flyweight but he still packs a lot of power in his hands and I have seen him pull of one punch knock outs. I would consider him to be a boxer more than anything but he has a very well rounded skillset. He has very strong cage control, nearly always leading the dance and pressuring his opponents. When he throws punches he throws in combination and like Joshua Van he often rips the body which sets up big punches to the head. He does have a good kicking arsenal as well, throwing very fast kicks to all three levels. If there was anything to be concerned about with Hasan it would be his defense which can slip at times. He has a very upright stance and so he relies on head movement a lot. However, he has fought good competition throughout his entire pro career and has not struggled with this. He recently beat Renaldy Manse by KO in round 1 who was another Indonesian prospect. He made Manse look bad in that fight by the way he was able to put a beating on him but I would actually consider Manse to be a “sneaky good” fighter himself and I think that win could actually age well if the UFC picks up Manse for Road to UFC next year.

MRIDUL SAIKIA 9-1 (5 KO, 4 SUB)

The UFC clearly wants an indian fighter to find success in the promotion and I can't blame them. However I just don't think Saikia will every be that guy. India does have some talented fighters on the rise such as Digamber Singh Rawat (7-0), but even among the Indian MMA scene online Saikia is not considered to be a top prospect by any means. We last saw him on the big stage on Road to UFC where he got redeemed in 37 seconds by Agulali. He was exiting the clinch and immediately got slumped. He has fought once and won in 19 seconds in a fight I actually think may have been fixed. His opponent quit after Saikia landed a flush head kick.

PREDICTION:

If Bilal Hasan starts aggressive he will knock out Saikia in less than 60 seconds. I see zero path to victory for Saikia at all. Hasan is bigger, faster, and more powerful than Saikia. On top of that he is also the better wrestler and grappler.

Pick: Bilal Hasan by KO/TKO in round 1. Very high confidence.

MATT ADAMS (6-2) vs. ANTHONY WINT (6-0) – Heavyweight

MATT ADAMS 6-2 (5 KO, 1 DEC)

Matt Adams is quite a funny heavyweight as nobody expected him to get on the Contender Series this year. I am also quite shocked he doesn't have a submission win yet as I would describe him more as a grappler than anything. Adams is just a typical obese heavyweight and all of his wins are against very poor competition. He has been the distance once but I wouldn't recommend watching that fight as it was super boring. Both guys gassed out pretty quickly and it was just a matter of who found top position in the round for the longest determining who won the fight. In his one loss he got absolutely dominated from start to finish and has only won one fight since. Adams also has professional boxing experience which I find quite funny.

ANTHONY WINT 6-0 (4 KO, 1 SUB, 1 DEC)

Wint is an absolute tank of a human being. He has massive arms, shoulders and traps. Before training in MMA he was a college football player but went undrafted in 2018. He must have picked up MMA soon after as he made his amateur debut in 2021. He isn't the biggest heavyweight listed at only 6'0″ and weighing in around 230-240 lbs in his fights. He does usually look a lot smaller (at least shorter) than most of his opponents so maybe a move to 205 lbs could be possible. His career trajectory has been quite interesting as in his earlier pro fights he wrestled a lot which caused these fights to be a lot closer than they needed to be. Especially against Omar El-Sahlah who was able to reverse a lot of positions against him on the cage. That fight was super boring and not a lot happened. Recently it seems like he has found new confidence in his striking as he now has two KO wins in a row which lasted less than 40 seconds each. Although he isn't big for the weight class I think his ceiling as a prospect at both heavyweight (and maybe even 205) is a lot higher if he chooses to be more a striker than a wrestler. On the feet Wint is mostly a boxer and I didn't see many kicks out of him. The technique isn't fantastic but that doesn't really matter as it is very obvious that the power is there and he seems defensively sound enough to make it past this stage of his career.

PREDICTION:

Anthony Wint is not a perfect prospect by any means but I highly doubt Matt Adams is the guy to stop his momentum. We haven't seen much of Adams needing to deal with a powerful striker yet as in his MMA fights he is either the better striker against guys with little power, or he is shooting take downs so fast he doesn't need to deal with the striking. If Wint was a guy who was 6-0 with 6 first round knockout wins I would say the wrestling could be a problem, but this is not the case. I have seen Wint wrestle in multiple professional fights now and have the cardio to go 15 minutes. I didn't even mention it but Adams is 5'10 so he just gonna be a punching bag for Wint. Wint may get another sub 60 second finish here.

Pick: Anthony Wint by KO/TKO in round 1. High confidence.

ABE ALSAGHIR (8-0) vs. FABRIZIO ESCARREGA (9-1) – Lightweight

ABE ALSAGHIR 8-0 (4 KO, 3 SUB, 1 DEC)

I knew this was going to be a difficult fight to predict going in so I have watched as many Abe Alsaghir fights as I could find. I have watched every fight from his win over Loucks in 2023 until his most recent win in 2025 which is 6 out of 8 fights. Honestly, all of his fights go the same way – He pushes an unreal wrestling pace and inevitably wins with ground and pound. Given that most of his recent wins come by KO/TKO, and him only being 5'9″ at lightweight, I actually expected him to be a striker. But he is quite the opposite actually. He does throw an insane amount of volume on the feet but this is always to set up a take down against the cage. On the feet he looks pretty solid though. He fights with a very wide stance which actually made him appear shorter than the 5'7″ Jerome Featherstone which is interesting as he doesn't throw a great amount of kicks. If he does this is usually in combination with the hands. From start to finish Abe starts with a crazy pace and I have seen him maintain this high volume (striking and wrestling) pace pace for two full rounds before he started to look a bit tired in round 3 against Featherstone. For someone with a lot of finishes you would think he has crazy power but I would argue that he does not. Nearly every fight of his that he wins by KO are due to ground and pound in a mounted position over an opponent that can't escape from position, usually exhausted from needed to defend his takedowns constantly. For example, he had Drew Fickett in a world of trouble on the feet early and Fickett had to pull guard to avoid the beating, but it still took him two rounds to finish a 45 year old with 66 professional MMA fights. On a positive note, he has clearly made improvements in every fight. He started his career with a couple of guillotine wins (which I could not find) which I think may have cursed him a bit as he was pulling these guillotines and giving up bad positions against Featherstone. He clearly won that fight but because of poor fight IQ that fight was a lot closer than it should have been. Since then he become much more ‘position over submission' even though his top control isn't super strong. His best striking performance come in his most recent fight where he knocked out Juan Porto with a big elbow as they exited the clinch in round 1. Overall, Alsaghir is a non-stop wrestler who is a little bit undersized for 155 lbs but makes up for this with super high volume striking, relentless take down attempts, and great cardio to maintain the pace that he sets.

FABRIZIO ESCARREGA 9-1 (7 KO, 1 SUB, 1 DEC)

Escarrega is a 6'1″ Mexican brawler. Unfortunately he hasn't been tested against anyone good yet. I actually think Alsaghir has fought better competition so that really says something. Escarrega spent most of his career fighting at 170 lbs and has only fought at 155 once, and that was in his last fight. He didn't look very big at 170 but as a lightweight this guy is huge. He isn't a thin 6'1″ with a Bahamondes-type build, he still had a lot of size on him even after a weight cut. It is hard to tell if he is more of a striker than a wrestler as he actually fights very similarly to Alsaghir. He would bomb away on the feet for a bit and then take his opponent down and finish them on the ground. I think the wrestling aspect of his game mostly come due to the fact that his opponents seemed to be absolutely clueless on the mat though. If anything I would classify him as a boxer. I wasn't super impressed with his technique and he isn't very fast. He makes up for this with a lot of power in both hands, and he mixes his strikes up with hooks to the head and body. He can be quite patient and likes to tap away with low kicks in the downtime. I didn't see him need to deal with a lot of wrestling threats but he did show decent take down defense against Erick Batista in 2023. He was able to defend the attempts and was even trying to set up defensive submissions while doing so.

PREDICTION:

This prediction could change before the fight rolls around as I am not confident in this at all. Both guys have never needed to deal with any adversity yet (aside from Escarrega's loss due to injury during a slam) so this will be an interesting clash. Stylistically I think these two match up well as they both fight with a similar style. Alsaghir definitely throws more volume, but Escarrega has significantly more power and more finishing upside. I am quite confident that Alsaghir has the better cardio but that may not matter too much if Escarrega is able to land a big shot early. What is giving me reservations about picking Alsaghir is the size difference between these two. Escaregga is going to be massive and that will play a big factor in him outworking Alsaghir in clinch positions. Being Contender Series, there is also the off chance that Alsaghir looks to strike more in an effort to be more entertaining to Dana and that favours Escarrega heavily. I am not convinced either of these two are prospects with contender potential, but they are both fun and this should be a good scrap. At the moment I lean Escarrega round 1 KO, but if the fight enters the second round I would favour Alsaghir as his whole gameplan is to drag his opponents into deep waters and drown them.

Pick: Fabrizio Escarrega by KO/TKO in round 1. Low confidence.

ANANIAS MULUMBA (10-3) vs. TOM PAGLIARULO (10-2) – Featherweight

ANANIAS MULUMBA 10-3 (5 KO, 5 SUB)

Mulumba is being brought back after giving Marwan Rahiki a very tough test last year. He had Rahiki in all sorts of trouble in that first round and if it was another referee I think they would have stopped it. Since then he fought once against a solid MMA veteran Ahmed Faress (23-9). Mulumba isn't very big for featherweight at 5'5″ but he is super scrappy. He is actually more of a wrestler than anything as he usually uses his boxing to pressure and set up take downs against the cage. He has a diverse striking arsenal though with kicks to multiple levels to keep opponents at bay. He is very strong at controlling both the cag and top position where he lands a lot of ground and pound. Against Faress I think Mulumba put on his best career performance. He looked very comfortable on the feet, throwing his kicks, switching stances and committing to big shots when the opportunity arose. He did make a couple big mistakes like pulling an Austen Lane and hanging out in the pocket for too long though. Once he had Faress cornered he landed a big right hook and it was game over.

TOM PAGLIARULO 10-2 (8 KO, 1 SUB, 1 DEC)

This fight will look quite funny as Pagliarulo will be so much taller at 6'0″. He is a super high volume striker with a strong arsenal of punches, knees and kicks. He has a somewhat awkward hunches over stance but it works for him. He has crazy power too, coming off four KO wins in the first round. I was most impressed by his win over former UFC fighter Don Shainis as it didn't even look like he hit Shainis very hard and he put him down. He also showed a lot of knees against Elijah Harris which will be a very strong asset for him as he fights the 5'5″ Mulumba. I couldn't find his loss to Olivier Murad but it is quite common for local promotions to hide fights where their star fighter loses/looks bad. I will assume he got wrestled in that fight as he lost by submission to Olivier Murad. I watched his other loss to Ghareeb hoping to see some wrestling defense but I didn't see any so that was quite disappointing. Pagliarulo's wrestling is a complete unknown but he will be the much more dangerous striker here which makes this a very tough night out for Mulumba.

PREDICTION

Not very confident in this one at all as I think Pagliarulo's height advantage is going to give him huge opportunities to land kicks and knees against the much shorter Mulumba. On the other hand, I have seen Pagliarulo get backed up by shorter opponents as Ghareeb was able to do it for 3 rounds straight with decent success. Pagliarulo's wrestling defense is a complete unknown and I am not even certain Mulumba will look to use his wrestling here, but he should. This pick could definitely change given the low confidence but for now I am going with a Mulumba decision with his wrestling and pressure.

Pick: Ananias Mulumba by decision. Low confidence.