Week 9 of Dana White’s Contender Series Season 10 is underway at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas, streaming on Paramount+ from 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Oct. 6. Ten fighters are competing for UFC contracts. Bantamweights Alivia Bierley (5-1) and Summer Onley (6-0) close the card. MMA Mania and MMA Fighting billed Nell Ariano vs. Preston LaGrange as the main event, but the walkout schedule in Yahoo Sports’ preview has the women’s bout going last. This piece will be updated with results as they come in.
The contract count is already high. MMA Fighting reported that the UFC has handed out 38 deals through competition this season, including four last week, and only two weeks of the season remain.
The card
Bierley vs. Onley (135 lbs): Onley entered as a -162 favorite on DraftKings. Bierley, a Fury FC standout according to MMA Mania, was +136. She won a blue belt no-gi BJJ world title in 2025, and Yahoo’s Billy Ward wrote that she does her best work when she drags opponents into a brawl or lands big slams. Yahoo says this is only the third women’s fight of the season, in a UFC division that has just 24 women on its roster.
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Sal Everett vs. Ozzy Martin (170 lbs): Both men are 4-0. Everett is the story. Yahoo’s preview described him as a UFC office security guard and personal assistant to White. MMA Fighting called him a former UFC employee. MMA Junkie described him as a runner trying to become a fighter for the company. He’s a 6-foot-3 welterweight and opened at -135, with Martin at +114.
Roque Conceicao vs. Alexander Chavez (125 lbs): This is a pick’em at -110 each way. Conceicao (11-3) lost to Imanol Rodriguez on this show in 2025. Rodriguez has since gone 2-0 in the UFC and picked up two Performance of the Night bonuses. Conceicao came back with a first-round knockout of a 14-6 opponent in Shooto. Chavez is 9-0 with six knockouts, and every one of those fights came under the Inka FC banner. Yahoo pointed out that the promotion is run by his head coach, Ivan Iberico.
Mateus Soares vs. Ryuho Miyaguchi (135 lbs): Soares is 11-2 at 22 years old and was a -395 favorite. He trains in Rio de Janeiro under Pedro Rizzo and Laerte Barcelos and holds a Taekwondo black belt. Miyaguchi (7-1) comes out of Japan with a Karate background and was +310. He was submitted in the second round of this year’s Road to UFC.
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Nell Ariano vs. Preston LaGrange (205 lbs): France’s Ariano (6-0) is an accomplished judoka. He shelved his Olympic plans in 2022 and turned pro in 2024. LaGrange (6-1) is a career middleweight who took this fight on short notice after Ivan Gnizditskiy withdrew. Yahoo noted that Brandon Holmes knocked LaGrange out with a slam in January. MMA Fighting says LaGrange has won two fights by submission since that lone loss. Ariano opened at -485.
Quick take
Everyone will be watching the Everett fight, and I get it. The fight I actually care about is at 125. Conceicao looked good against Rodriguez until he slipped on a kick, and Yahoo’s preview said he was defending well and landing before that. Now he gets a 9-0 opponent who has never fought outside his own coach’s promotion. That’s a real test of Chavez’s record. If Chavez’s knockouts hold up against someone his coach didn’t book, he deserves a contract. If they don’t, Conceicao should be signed on the spot.
