The sporting season we've been waiting all summer for is finally upon us. Not the NFL; it's the Contender Series, where 100 or so UFC hopefuls will battle in hopes of earning a UFC contract.
We've got a chalky Week 3 with plenty of heavy favorites, including the much-anticipated debut of Bella Mir. Mir is an NCAA wrestling champion, UFC BJJ winner, and daughter of former heavyweight champion Frank Mir.
Check out the latest Dana White's Contender Series Week3 odds with my picks and predictions for each bout on the Tuesday, August 25, fight card.
DWCS Season 10 Episode 3 of Contender Series streams tonight on Paramount+ at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT) from the UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas.
As with all DWCS events, some of the winners – and even some of the losers – could earn an official UFC contract tonight. In fact, the Contender Series has become the UFC's primary feeder system for new talent.
UFC CEO Dana White will be cageside tonight. The UFC boss will determine which fighters have earned a contract with their performances, which also count as official MMA bouts on the fighters' records.
As a reminder, some sportsbooks can be slow to open Contender Series odds and betting markets, though nearly every major sportsbook eventually does post them. And don't forget that you can track your Contender Series bets, and see mine, in the Action App.
Dana White's Contender Series 10 odds as of Tuesday afternoon and via DraftKings. Bet on DWCS Week 3 with our DraftKings promo code.
Dana White's Contender Series Week 3 Odds & Best Bets
Middleweight: Nick Galanti (-230) vs. Carlos Petruzzella (+190)
Fighter walkouts: Approx. 7:15 p.m. ET
Week 3 of the 2026 Contender Series starts with one of the two somewhat closely-lined fights on the card, as American Nick Galanti takes on Argentinian Carlos Petruzella.
Galanti is 7-1 as a pro and fights out of Dante Rivera BJJ in New Jersey, competing exclusively for the Cage Fury FC promotion where he recently won the middleweight title via five-round decision. He's also competed for Fury Pro Grappling, with a 1-1 record including a win over UFC fighter Phil Rowe. His lone professional loss came to Brandon Holmes, who competed on last year's Contender Series and is booked for a second try next week.
As both his gym and pro grappling experience would indicate, Galanti is primarily a grappler. In most of the tape I watched he initiated takedowns within about 30 seconds of the fights start, swarming with strikes on the feet as a means to a clinch and/or shot. He's effective in limited doses with his striking, but that seems to be mostly a function of his opponents being more concerned with defending takedowns than strikes. He mixes fluidly between striking and grappling, but will need to develop a more dedicated striking game — or at least willingness to use it — to have much of a future in the UFC.
With that said, his grappling is a joy to watch. He attempts submissions aggressively from top position, and while he'll occasionally fall to his back when he thinks an attempt is locked on, he mostly prioritizes submissions that allow him to remain in control. Rather than "play jiu-jitsu" from his back, he instead looks to scramble back to his feet from bottom position, which prevents him from giving away rounds when he can't find the tap.
His best attributes, though, are his toughness and cardio. I didn't think he deserved to win the CFFC title in his last fight, but he gritted out a tough fifth round to get the decision. (CFFC uses a 4+1 system for title fights, in which a draw after four rounds leads to a fifth. I would've scored the fight 3-1 for his opponent heading into the fifth round, but Galanti clearly won the final frame.) That's not quite as helpful in a three round fight, but could come into play if this fight extends.
Petruzella is 15-1 as a pro, though much of his record is somewhat suspicious. His lone loss came in his only fight for LFA, with most of his wins coming in Brazil's "Samurai Fight House" promotion which is primarily contested in high school gyms. He's beaten a handful of fighters with respectable records in SFH, though, so it's not an entirely fraudulent resume.
He's extremely patient, bordering on hesitant, on the feet. However, he also strikes well from the outside, landing solid straight shots when he can keep his opponents at his desired range. He's not always able to do so thanks to below-average speed and athleticism, but that's been more apparent when he's fought quicker fighters at welterweight. He doesn't really have the power to hurt UFC-level middleweights but is too slow for welterweight, making him akin to a 6'3" combo guard who lacks the speed to defend point guards and the size to hang with the twos.
On the plus side, he's also a BJJ black belt, and is Instagram handle is "Carlitosjiujitsu" so he knows where his bread is buttered. If my Portuguese knowledge is correct he bills himself as a BJJ world champion, though I'm not sure what tournament/belt/style that refers to specifically. I was impressed by his grappling exchanges though, smoothly flowing through positions and controlling opponents from the top.
All in all, they're very similar fighters from an overall attributes standpoint, with Galanti taking a more urgent approach on the feet and riskier one on the ground, while Petruzzella controls minutes at a higher rate. Galanti is the deserving favorite thanks to his athleticism edge, but the line is a bit too wide here. If Petruzella can deny a takedown or two and score some points at range he could eke out a decision, while it's also not inconceivable to see him get the better of grappling exchanges.
I'm splitting my exposure between Petruzella's moneyline and Petruzella by decision, with the best odds +220 via BetMGM for the former, while Petruzella via decision is +1100 on DraftKings.
Prediction: Carlos Petruzella by Decision
Billy's Bet: Petruzella +220 | by Decision +1100
Welterweight: Ronald Humphrey (-950) vs. Alexis Miranda (+575)
Fighter walkouts: Approx. 7:45 p.m. ET
The first of a few "set up fights" on the Contender Series this week features a hot prospect out of American Top Team Atlanta, Ronald Humphrey, who is 4-0 with four first-round knock out victories.
Humphrey is an elite athlete whose father was a pro fighter that fought in Strikeforce, competing at one point against Brett Rogers and George Bush (not that one). I can't find any specific combat sports background for the younger Humphrey, but it seems evident he was training from a young age. The 25-year-old welterweight also had four amateur fights before turning pro, all of those also ending in first round knockout wins.
He applies a ton of forward pressure on the feet, pressing forward but maintaining solid defense. "The Career Ender" carries plenty of power, but really shines in the grappling. He'll launch opponents with big slams before aggressively attacking with ground and pound, overwhelming them with his speed and power.
If there's a criticism it's that his wrestling is relatively basic, as he powers through bad takedown entries with pure power, but it could be that more advanced techniques have proven unnecessary given his athleticism edge so he's kept them in the bag for now. Should he make a run in the UFC that might be tested at some point — but likely not this week.
Alexis Miranda is more experienced at 7-2, but against a lower level of competition than Humphrey. He's a tall, awkward welterweight at 6'2" who is coming off a split decision win against a 29-25 opponent that arguably should've gone the other way. He utilizes "tall man defense" on the feet in the negative sense, pulling back at range with his chin in the air, and his long frame should make for easy takedown entries from Humphrey.
I'm interested to see Humphrey tested against a tougher wrestler or someone who could challenge his heretofore unnecessary cardio, but don't see either happening in this matchup. Given his relative inexperience Humphrey could be a candidate for a return DWCS fight later in the season, but he's winning this one.
The best way to bet this is Humphrey in the first round, Humphrey by knockout, or a combination of the two. With the first two options being juiced north of -300, I'm taking the combination of the two at -220 via FanDuel.
Prediction: Humphrey Round 1 KO
Billy's Bets: Humprey by Round 1 KO -220 (FanDuel)
Welterweight: Sean Clancy Jr. (-850) vs. Gary Bellato Jr. (+520)
Fighter walkouts: Approx. 8:15 p.m. ET
With apologies to the A-side in the main event, my favorite prospect on this week's card is Scotland's Sean Clancy Jr. He trains at Higher Level martial arts in Scotland with his two brothers — one is also a pro MMA fighter, the other a high-level BJJ competitor — as well as former UFC fighters Stevie Ray and Paul Craig, both of whom are known for their elite jiu-jitstu.
Clancy is a black belt in BJJ, Judo, and Taekwondo who began training martial arts at age six. He's shown that grappling experience with three pro wins by submission plus a couple more via ground-and-pound, but I was actually most impressed by his striking when watching his tape.
Clancy is a patient counter striker who is willing to let minutes go by without throwing anything meaningful, but when he throws it's a massive problem. After each knockout victory of his I was given the impression he could've done that at nearly any moment but was waiting for the perfect opportunity to minimize damage. The one negative note I had on him was his takedown defense which is somewhat wanting — and also perhaps explains the particular matchup he has this week.
His opponent, Gary Bellato Jr., is the son of a world champion boxer with pro experience in both gloved and bare knuckle boxing. The CES welterweight champion isn't a bad grappler necessarily, but he's extremely unlikely to shoot for takedowns against the Judo and BJJ black belt. At 31, Bellato is on the older side for a prospect but has plenty of experience, going 11-3 as a pro MMA fighter with two of those losses coming to current UFC fighters (Jeremiah Wells and Billy Ray Goff.)
Both of those losses were knockouts, though, and he tends to absorb a ton of damage before rallying back in his fights. That tendency held true across disciplines, with some of his BKFC wins also being comebacks. His toughness is admirable, but it's probably not a great plan against a fighter as explosive as Clancy.
It's also worth noting that Bellato's last three fights were in BKFC and he hasn't fought MMA since April of 2025. That probably means he wasn't training much grappling until signing on for this fight, which is also concerning given the matchup.
Rather than lay the juice on any of the obvious outcomes here, I'm going to take a slight sprinkle on Clancy by submission. Bellato's toughness makes a club-and-sub somewhat more likely, and it's also the easiest path for the Scotsman to get it done.
Prediction: Clancy by submission
Billy's Bet: Clancy sub +195 (FanDuel)
Heavyweight: Guilherme Uriel (-142) vs. Mario Piazzon (+120)
Fighter walkouts: Approx. 8:45 p.m. ET
Guilherme Uriel returns to the Contender Series after suffering a knockout loss to Josh Hokit last season. That loss has aged incredibly well, with Hokit rapidly becoming a heavyweight contender with four straight UFC victories.
I watched that fight back this week and was surprised by how competitive Uriel was in the early part of that fight. He denied some Hokit takedowns while sticking him with some sharp jabs, lining up with my prefight assessment of Uriel as a clearly inferior athlete who might be the more skilled fighter. I also noted his terrible gas tank, which was ultimately the deciding factor against Hokit.
There's a couple of pieces of good news for Uriel this season. The first is that he weighed in about ten pounds lighter than he did against Hokit, and based on the eye test seems to have discovered where they keep the weights. The second is that his opponent, Mario Piazzon, is a sloppy heavyweight with questionable athleticism and cardio.
Piazzon looks great in his Tapology picture but had a considerably different physique at weigh ins. He's listed at 5'11′" on Tapology but the UFC clocked him at 5'9" prior to his first Contender Series fight, a DQ win back in 2023. Piazzon wasn't signed following that fight and has gone 3-1 since, not including a win flagged for illegitimacy by Tapology's records.
Two of those three wins were against the same opponent, a 37-year-old 9-5 Brazilian who might be his toughest opponent outside of the Contender Series. In their recent fight, Piazzon didn't do much except stick him against the fence, and his ceiling seems to be a bunch of meaningless takedowns like he landed on the Contender Series. He was knocked out by a 15-39 fighter nicknamed "Marmaduke" back in 2025, and nearly all of his wins have been either against terrible competition or under questionable circumstances.
Uriel is no world beater but is much more skilled, and this time is the better athlete, with at worst equivalent cardio to his opponent. This one could get ugly if nobody finishes things early, but I'm fine laying some slight juice on who I view as a much better fighter.
Prediction: Uriel by KO.
Billy's Bet: Uriel -142 (DraftKings)
Bantamweight: Bella Mir (-2800) vs. Alexis Apodaca (+1300)
Fighter walkouts: Approx. 9:15 p.m. ET
We've already had two sons of professional fighters on this week's DWCS, but we finish with the daughter of one: Bella Mir, perhaps the most highly-touted prospect in all of MMA right now. She's just 4-0 as a pro MMA fighter but also has four wins in professional grappling competitions, not to mention an NCAA wrestling title (there are no divisions in women's wrestling so her championship included competitors from all three NCAA divisions).
Mir's first two pro MMA fights came at the age of 17 in Mexico, and outside of some struggles in her debut — which came against a fully-grown woman — she's been essentially perfect in MMA. Her next three victories were all first-round submission wins, with next-to-no resistance from her opponents. Mir's striking is still limited, or at least it was at the time of her last MMA fight last summer, but that's about the only flaw worth noting. It's also not a particularly relevant one, given how quickly she's taken all of her opponents to the mat.
The sacrificial lamb in this matchup is Alexis Apodaca, a 3-1 pro out of Tiger Beetle MMA in Colorado. Apodaca is a high-volume striker who has never finished a fight as a pro or an amateur, and her boxing base makes her the perfect showcase opponent for Mir.
There's (much) better prospects out there than a woman in her early 30s who didn't have an amateur MMA fight until 2021, but the point of this fight specifically — and this week generally — is to showcase potential future stars rather than find out who is UFC level. Mir could potentially close as the heaviest favorite in DWCS history, but deserves every bit of it.
A submission is by far the likeliest outcome, but a sprinkle on Mir by knockout might be a fun way to get some exposure. Now would be a good chance to show off her striking and/or ground and pound skills before jumping into the UFC proper, given the near-complete lack of a threat coming back at her. The best odds on the prop are +320 at FanDuel, with Round 1 KO +470. I'll take the latter for the extra payout, but I wouldn't fault anyone for simply sprinkling Mir as a parlay piece on all of your other bets.
Prediction: Mir by Submission
Billy's Bet: Mir Round 1 KO +470 (FanDuel)
