An Honest Conversation About Alabama Football... x.com/i/broadcasts/1lJQRWDkm…

DWCS is quietly taking over the UFC. For the promotion, that’s great business. For fighters? Not so much. Wildly, 39% of fighters who competed in the UFC this year came through DWCS. That’s 232 of 595, accounting for 42% of all UFC appearances in 2026. Season 10 wrapped tonight with 46 UFC contracts, tying the single-season record. In under a decade, DWCS has gone from a little Tuesday night entertainment to one of the UFC’s smartest financial moves: a virtually risk-free pipeline where prospects compete for the privilege of signing a multi-fight contract at the UFC’s lowest-paying rate. From 2017 to 2019, DWCS alumni accounted for 23% of UFC debuts. Since 2022: 51%. 880 fighters have competed on the show. 428 made it to the UFC before this season’s class, including many who lost on DWCS and were signed afterward anyway. But volume isn’t the same as elite talent. DWCS alumni hold just 26% of top-15 ranked spots, with four fighters reaching the pinnacle and winning UFC gold. Two weeks ago, Dana gave us the perfect example when he told heavyweight contestant Adama Diop: “Your fight was horrible, sloppy, and one of the worst fights I’ve ever seen on the Contender Series.” At the presser, he called it “atrocious.” Then he signed him. Why not? The last widely reported DWCS pay was $5K to show and $5K to win. At that rate, Season 10’s 49 fights would cost about $735K in fighter pay. That’s roughly $16K for every UFC contract handed out, and under 3% of the approximately $25.6M in average per-event media rights revenue from the Paramount deal. That doesn’t stop Dana from acting like he’s taking some massive financial risk every time he hands out a contract. The same Dana who wagered $1 million on a single hand of baccarat two weeks ago. And God forbid a signee doesn’t work out, the UFC can simply cut them and move on within the contract. But if that fighter succeeds, the UFC may have found its next star or champion at entry-level prices. For some management agencies, DWCS has become their main pipeline into the UFC and their biggest recruiting pitch. Some have credited it with growing their rosters from a dozen fighters to hundreds. But when managers are simply supplying the UFC with a steady stream of affordable talent, you sometimes have to wonder whose interests they’re really representing. The result is even more leverage shifting away from fighters. And when there’s a seemingly endless pipeline of prospects who want nothing more than to represent those three letters, U-F-C, it’s the veterans who can take the hit. Every newcomer willing to sign a multi-fight entry deal gives the UFC another option when an established fighter asks for more money, especially in today’s landscape without PPV. The UFC ran this play with TUF two decades ago. Now it’s doing it on an even greater scale with DWCS, somehow with almost identical entry-level pay. The UFC has mastered buying potential for pennies, while fighters sell their leverage for an “opportunity.” Is DWCS the best thing to happen to prospects, or the worst thing to happen to fighter pay?

Ariel Helwani acts like he was the 1st person to cover MMA when you had Full Contact Fighter magazine, MMA Weekly, The UG, Sherdog. A few years after that Fighters Only magazine etc He acts like he was the 1st credible journalist to cover the sport when all he had was a degree

Spencer Brown says they took out the part of contract that said Dana White and TKO could not be part of the fight: "We actually took it out because we didn't see any problem in Dana White promoting the fight, especially in America. He's one of the biggest promoters in the world." Later, Spencer is asked who is producing the event. #HelwaniShow

I will not fight or sign any contract until I get this figured out Hopefully we get it figured out soon Thanks for all your support it helps! 👊

OFFICIATING CRISIS Also, let’s save the whales.

Dana White opens up about his mother's book about him and what led to their falling-out "That's one of the grossest, most disgusting things that you couldn't even imagine possible." (via @StevenBartlett)

DANA WHITE ON BOXING; "You and I gotta get together in like 5 years and talk about boxing and watch what we do for the next 5 years, I mean I'm already 2 years ahead of where I thought I would be because the guys that are doing it right now are so bad at doing it." Via: TheDiaryofACEO YT

🗣️ Dana White talks Eddie Hearn, via The Diary of a CEO podcast. 👀👇 “Eddie Hearn is weak... His dad built that business. His dad’s a real guy… “And I see it in Frank Warren [too]… Frank Warren is a real guy.”

Dana White: "Literally, all the guys that cover our sport I block them out of my feed...They're all wrong and everything they say is wrong. It's a waste of my time to even listen to anything they say."

UFC forgot to bring a translator for Cameroonian fighter Ateba Gautier 😭 Dana White: “We got f*cked out of that one. We don’t have a translator for him. Sorry.”