Dana White Contender Series has acted as a springboard of opportunity for fighters and has produced former UFC champions Sean O’Malley and Jamahal Hill. However, this is not true for every combatant as success is not guaranteed even after winning the entire thing. This time the unfortunate candidate was Julieta Martinez. But why did Dana White not sign her to a UFC contract? This same question was asked by the reporters at the post-fight presser on Season 8 of DWCS.

The UFC head honcho had an answer for why Bo Nickal secured a contract against Donovan Beard in 2022 and Julieta Martinez did not this time. He said, “There is a big difference between her and Bo Nickal. Though Bo Nickal needed a little more experience, to see him again against somebody else you know of a high caliber. This girl is super green she turned 20, two weeks ago. She is undersized for that weight division. She is talented but it’s not the right time. She is a baby she does not need to step up into the UFC right now.”

On the recent episode of DWCS, 4 fighters were awarded UFC contracts thus paving a new path for their budding MMA careers. Julieta came out victorious with a split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) win over Leslie Hernandez in strawweight action. Before that, the two fighters were engaged in a back-and-forth over 15 minutes in the second bout of the night.

Under the watchful eye of consensus UFC bantamweight GOAT Dominick Cruz, Martinez is now 8-0 as a professional with 4 wins via TKO/KO and 2 of them via submission. The 5’1” young star has indeed a bright future. But she would have been the youngest woman to be signed by the MMA juggernaut had Dana White signed her to a deal.

White addressed her directly and said, “Julieta, let me just say this; I cannot express to you, how much we like you and there is no doubt that you are incredibly talented, but you’re just too young right now.” However, his main problem is she is still a “baby and undersized for the division.” 

Although ‘The Ninja Ferret’ did not get the contract, there is a little silver lining. The UFC CEO was so impressed with her performance that he later teased that the promotion was open to creating a whole new weight class in UFC.

UFC head honcho Dana White claimed that despite keeping her UFC dreams on hold, the promotion is going to keep a keen eye on her next bouts to see if they can determine when she is prepared for the MMA juggernaut. White was so impressed that he was even open to creating a new Atomweight division (105lbs) especially when the promotion is bringing more athletes who are younger and might be of a lighter weight class.

“That’s the other thing. As you start talking about South America, you start to talk about Asia, whether it’s China or Japan or [South] Korea, we keep cultivating talent in these places. We might end up creating another division,” White said. Such a proposal from the UFC head honcho definitely speaks of the caliber of Julieta. After all, he is known to speak his mind, just like he did for Bo Nickal when the latter earned his UFC contract back in 2022, during the DWCS Season 6.

Dana White only had two words to praise Bo Nickal’s DWCS performance

After winning three NCAA Division 1 National wrestling championships, Bo Nickal decided to take his talents to mixed martial arts. Finishing his NCAA wrestling career with a stellar 120-3 record, a grappling-heavy approach from the Hodge Trophy winner during his professional MMA debut was quite normal. So that is how it was.

Nickal knocked his opponent out on the feet just 33 seconds into the first round. With this early show of talent, at just 1-0 as a pro, Nickal earned a spot on Season 6 of DWCS. Nickal was set against Zachary Borrego, who, at the time, was just 3-0 in his budding career.

The collegiate wrestling sensation wasted no time to put his grappling skills to use. He took down Borrego in less than five seconds into the fight. From there, Nickal capitalized, taking Borrego’s back and sinking in a rear-naked choke to force the tap just over a minute into the first round. While this was impressive enough, Dana White probably wanted to see more of Nickal before rewarding him with the UFC contract.

So Nickal was granted a second fight on DWCS Season 6 just seven weeks later against Donovan Beard. Nickal, who was then 2-0, once again showed why he was a -3500 favorite.

Just 30 seconds into the fight, Nickal came up with a hard left hook followed by a takedown. Initially trying for a mounted guillotine, Nickal shifted to a triangle choke, which forced Beard to tap 52 seconds into the fight. With such back-to-back explosive performances, there was no way Dana could turn his eyes away from Nickal.

“My only note on my paper is, ‘God damn,’ I mean, for a kid who has almost no experience… the confidence that this kid has to roll into that triangle the way that he did and go for the things that he does, me and a lot of other people are excited to see the future that this kid has. Welcome to the UFC,” White had said of Nickal back then.

Nickal has since repeated the show every time he’s stepped in the Octagon. He made his first UFC appearance at UFC 285: Jones vs Gane and defeated Jamie Pickett in less than three minutes to earn his first Performance of the Night bonus. That was followed by a first-round TKO over Val Woodburn and a second-round submission over Cody Brundage at UFC 300. He now stands undefeated at 6-0.

During UFC 306 at Sphere, UFC announced that Nickal will return to the Octagon in the UFC 309: Jones vs Miocic at Madison Square Garden in New York City on November 16. At 185 pounds, he is set to take on Scotland’s Paul Craig, who holds a TKO victory over former light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill and a submission win over No. 2 ranked light heavyweight contender Magomed Ankalaev. Nickal must be looking forward to amazing Dana White once again with his fiery run.