Dana White signs two new fighters to the UFC following Fury FC 46 event in Houston

UFC president Dana White signed two new fighters to the UFC following the Fury FC 46 event in Houston that took place on Sunday evening.

White was in Houston for UFC 262 and the next night he was in attendance at Fury FC 46: Lookin’ For a Fight where he was scouting future UFC talent. According to Nolan King of MMAjunkie.com, the UFC leader found several fighters that he was interested in. In fact, White signed two of the event’s winners and invited another to the Contender Series.

The two fighters that White signed are Mana Martinez and Fernando Padilla. Martinez knocked out Jose Johnson in the co-main event of the evening in the first round to defend the Fury FC bantamweight championship. A former Contender Series fighter who lost to eventual UFC signee Drako Rodriguez on the show last summer, Martinez is 8-2 overall as a professional MMA fighter with all eight of his career victories coming by way of stoppage. As for Padilla, he defeated Cameron Graves via second-round TKO to win the Fury FC featherweight title. Padilla is 14-4 as a pro and he has won four of his last five fights.

In addition to signing Martinez and Padilla, White also invited Nikolay Veretennikov to the Contender Series this summer. Veretennikov defeated UFC veteran Anthony Ivy via first-round TKO in the main event of the evening to win the Fury FC welterweight title, and while it apparently wasn’t enough of a victory for him to get outright signed to the UFC, he’ll get his shot on the Contender Series this summer should he choose to accept White’s invite.

It’s also worth noting that Jacob Silva, who had two previous appearances on Contender Series, also won on this card but he wasn’t signed. He could be someone who eventually is signed to the UFC to fill in on short notice, however. Either way, it’s nice to see Dana White bring in some new talent to the UFC roster with Martinez, Padilla, and maybe Veretennikov.