DWCS Season 5, Week 7 results: Jake Hadley among trio of contract winners despite weight miss

Dana White had some tough decisions to make, especially when it came to the two fighters that were defeated by the scale the day before.

DWCS Season 5, Week 7 took place Tuesday night inside the APEX in Las Vegas. At the end of the event, three fighters earned UFC contracts with big finishes, including one that didn’t make weight on Monday.

In the main event, Reyes Cortez — the brother of UFC fighter Tracy Cortez — took on Christian Rodriguez in a bantamweight bout. The lane seemed a little wider for Cortez after Rodriguez came in heavy at Monday’s weigh-ins and missed his mark by two pounds.

Both fighters came out swinging for the fences and Rodriguez just missed a jumping knee attempt around 15 seconds in. Cortez was able to get dominant positions against the fence, transitioning from the back to double underhooks. Once they separated, Rodriguez landed big shots on the feet while also defending multiple takedown attempts from Cortez. A hard shot to the liver from Rodriguez continued the onslaught on the feet in the opening round.

Rodriguez landed a big knee on a Cortez takedown attempt to start the second as he continued to extend his lead in the striking department. Cortez tried to land a momentum-altering shot, but Rodriguez was very slick on offense and defense to thwart those attempts.

With his sister Tracy in the corner letting her brother know he needed to wrestle in the third, Cortez tried to do just that, but as the rest of the fight went, he was unable to make anything big happen. Rodriguez continued to land the harder and more precise shots on his game opponent en route to a unanimous decision victory. Although White went a different way with the other fighter on the card that missed weight, Rodriguez did not get a contract.

Martin Buday delivers punishing first-round TKO finish

Martin Buday’s eighth straight victory came at the perfect time, and was delivered in a battering fashion.

In the heavyweight co-main event, Buday took on hard-hitting Lorenzo Hood and established his clinch dominance early on, trying to use his weight to wear down his opponent. Hood would gain separation and land a big flurry that definitely caught Buday’s attention.

Buday was able to overcome the brief onslaught and proceeded to bloody and devastate Hood in the clinch. Referee Mark Smith warned Hood to fight back, but Buday landed a huge knee to the face of his opponent and Smith stepped in to save Hood from any further damage, leading to an obvious contract being awarded from the UFC president.

Cage Warriors flyweight champ Jake Hadley took on New England regional standout and season 28 contestant on The Ultimate Fighter, Mitch Raposo. The battle was hard fought as expected between two of the top unsigned flyweight prospects in the world, but in the end Hadley landed a takedown and used his excellent ground game en route to a second-round submission win via rear-naked choke.

Unfortunately, Hadley missed weight by a pound, which has typically been extremely frowned upon throughout the history of DWCS. However, White awarded Hadley a contract despite “having a lot of issues” during fight week.

Viacheslav Borshchev is no stranger to exciting fights and the lightweight up-and-comer kept that moniker alive competing in front of White and the matchmakers. In a lightweight battle, Borshchev took on Scotland’s Chris Duncan, and after an exciting first round, Borshchev landed a devastating one-punch knockout less than 30 seconds into the second round to earn himself a spot on the UFC roster.

In the opening bout of the evening, Maria Silva earned a unanimous decision victory over short-notice opponent Kathryn Paprocki in a strawweight fight, but was not awarded a contract.

Check out the full DWCS Season 5, Week 7 results below:

• Christian Rodriguez def. Reyes Cortez vis unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Martin Buday def. Lorenzo Hood via TKO - Round 1, 4:56
• Jake Hadley def. Mitch Raposo via submission (rear naked choke) - Round 2, 3:11
• Viacheslav Borshchev def. Chris Duncan via KO - Round 2, 0:28
• Maria Silva def. Kathryn Paprocki via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)