It's not in a regional org tho.
The guys with the most experience are getting paired up against each other, while TV-made fighters are getting fed cans. If you're a guy worthy of a UFC contract, fighting another guy worthy of a UFC contract, in a UFC event in front of the supposed megalord vader of MMA Dana himself with live draftkings odds and a few mil in bets changing hands (pulling that out of my ass btw) for a full 15 min fight, you should be on a UFC contract and a chance to kill or be killed for a full UFC wage.
That's not to say they couldn't have the contender series actually be for prospects, but cap the experience at like 10 fights or something.
That dude Abbasov who lost to Bonfim Bro #1 took 3 full rounds of damage and threw gas the whole time, with 30 pro fights already lol. This would have been a FOTN on some cards and made the two a collective $136,000 potentially (50 each for a FOTN + 24 to winner and 12 to loser for show on even the shittiest full-UFC contracts), instead gets them a combined $15,000 to share.
That's $121,000 back to the UFC's corporate benefit and they appeased the hardcores while not having to promote weird looking guys with confusing names to their casual audience unless they want to later on.