Yusaku Kinoshita scores devastating third-round finish of Jose Henrique to win UFC contract

Yusaku Kinoshita earned a UFC contract on Tuesday night with a fantastic TKO counter win over Jose Henrique.

The sixth season of Dana White’s Contender Series has already produced a string of memorable moments, many of which led to fighters being awarded a deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Of course, that isn’t always the case, but more often than not the UFC president has been feeling quite generous following a fairly subpar first week.

Last night proved to be no different with all five winners winding up with a contract and a chance to prove themselves in the biggest mixed martial arts promotion in the world.

Following on from the first four fights of the night, the main event was contested between welterweight prospects Yusaku Kinoshita and Jose Henrique.

Many felt as if the first round was a bit of a toss-up with Kinoshita potentially edging it out, whereas the second was clearly swinging in favour of the Japanese star.

Then, in the early stages of the third, Henrique was putting the pressure on his opponent in a big way – which wound up serving as his biggest downfall.

Kinoshita ducked underneath a right hand from his foe before coming back with a left that dropped Jose straight to the canvas.

Some nasty ground and pound followed and after over a dozen shots, the referee stepped in and awarded Yusaku the stoppage win.

WHAT A LEFT HAND FROM KINOSHITA TO GET THE THIRD ROUND KO #DWCS pic.twitter.com/mM3x1WdWxV

It was hard fought, it was gritty, and we’re pretty confident in saying it was everything the boss was looking for.

The Japanese market has always been an important one within the context of combat sports and that’ll continue to be the case for many years to come. However, as noted by Dana White