Malcolm Wellmaker dropped the hammer.
The Faglier’s MMA rep was one of four hopefuls to nail down an Ultimate Fighting Championship contract during Week 3 of Dana White’s Contender Series, as he punched out Adam Bramhald in the first round of their bantamweight showcase on Tuesday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Bramhald (13-3, 0-1 DWCS) crashed and burned 2:29 into Round 1, his 11-fight winning streak having run its course.
Wellmaker (8-0, 1-0 DWCS) operated behind a punishing jab, absorbed a few leg kicks and waited for an opportunity to present itself. The Augusta, Georgia, native countered a jab from Bramhald with a crushing counter right hook and dropped the Asylum Vale Tudo where he stood. No follow-up shots were necessary.
Middleweight Marco Tulio will join Wellmaker on the UFC roster, along with featherweight Bogdan Grad and middleweight Andrey Pulyaev.
Chute Boxe’s Tulio buried Hexagone MMA champion Matthieu Letho Duclos with a spinning back kick to the body and follow-up punches in the second round of their middleweight feature. Duclos (6-3, 0-1 DWCS) bowed out 2:38 into Round 2, suffering his first setback in more than two years.
Tulio (12-1, 2-0 UFC) stayed patient, tenderized the Frenchman’s lead leg with kicks and stepped forward into offensive bursts. Midway through the middle stanza, the Diego Lima protégé punctuated a multi-strike volley with a fight-altering spinning back kick to the gut. His heel struck Duclos’ liver, forced him to the canvas in a defensive shell and left him helpless against the punches that fell next.
The 29-year-old Tulio has pieced together eight straight victories.
Meanwhile, the determined Grad rode a multi-pronged standup attack to a split decision over Fury Fighting Championship titleholder Michael Aswell in a hotly contested three-round featherweight attraction. All three members of the cageside judiciary scored it 29-28, two of them for Grad (14-2, 1-1 DWCS).
Aswell (9-2, 0-1 DWCS) relied almost exclusively on clean one-twos for much of the 15-minute encounter. Grad answered with aggressive punching volleys, kicks to all levels and merciless forward pressure. He opened a cut on Aswell’s eyelid with a slashing elbow strike in the second round and continued to target the wound in the third. By the time it was over, the gash had grown to well over an inch long. Nevertheless, Aswell stayed busy and overwhelmed the Austria-based Romanian with high-volume striking—the Saul Soliz and Daniel Pineda disciple seemed to rattle Grad with a series of close-range body shots at one point—across the final five minutes, only to fall short on the scorecards.
Grad, 28, has won three fights in a row.
Elsewhere, Storm Shlemenko Fight Team’s Pulyaev took care of business with high-output striking and sound takedown defense, as he laid claim to a unanimous decision over Liam Anderson in a three-round middleweight affair. Pulyaev (9-2, 1-0 DWCS) swept the scorecards with matching 30-27 marks from the judges.
Anderson (6-3, 0-1 DWCS) made some progress in a few ground exchanges but had no way to get the Russian to the mat on a consistent basis. On the feet, Pulyaev hammered the Team Empire standout’s body and legs with crushing kicks, picked him off with jabs and threw in a handful of close-range elbow strikes for good measure. Anderson had his chances—he advanced to full mount late in the second round—but failed to capitalize on them.
The 26-year-old Pulyaev now finds himself on a five-fight winning streak.
Finally, Fortis MMA prospect Nick Piccininni leaned on takedowns and positional advances to eke out a contentious split decision over Jack Duffy in a three-round flyweight appetizer. All three cageside judges turned in 29-28 scorecards, two of them siding with the undefeated Piccininni (7-0, 1-0 DWCS).
Duffy (7-1, 0-1 DWCS) deployed a hyperactive guard and proved to be vastly superior in the standup exchanges. He beat up Piccininni’s lead leg with repeated kicks, probed with his jab and incorporated a few spinning attacks at opportune times. A three-time NCAA All-American wrestler at Oklahoma State University, Piccininni executed multiple takedowns in the second and third rounds, progressed to the back with a body triangle and piled up points with moderate ground-and-pound. Duffy called upon standing elbow strikes, the occasional front kick to the face and a spinning back kick to the body in the latter stages of the fight but failed to fully counteract his opponent’s efforts in the wrestling and grappling exchanges.
Neither Piccininni nor Duffy was awarded a contract.
