All Five Winners Ink UFC Contracts on Week 6 of Dana White’s Contender Series

Yusaku
Kinoshita did his part to connect the talent pipeline from his
native Japan to
Dana White’s Contender Series.

The onetime Pancrase headliner was one of five competitors to nail
down an
Ultimate Fighting Championship contract on
Week 6 of DWCS, as he buried Jose
Henrique Souza with
punches in the third round of their welterweight
showcase on Tuesday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Souza (5-1) checked out 43 seconds into Round 3.

Kinoshita (6-1)—the first Japanese fighter to ink a UFC deal on the
series—successfully navigated three-inch height and 7.5-inch reach
deficits, built a lead with a steady diet of leg kicks and answered
punching volleys from the gangly Brazilian with some of his own. An
inadvertent eye poke from Souza resulted in a brief pause early in
the third round. Moments after the restart, Kinoshita slipped a
right hand and countered with a devastating left hook. Souza, 20,
hit the deck in a dazed state and could not withstand the barrage
of standing-to-ground punches that greeted him on the canvas.

In addition to the 22-year-old Kinoshita, the UFC signed
middleweight Sedriques
Dumas, lightweight Mateusz
Rebecki, featherweight Blake
Bilder and strawweight Victoria
Dudakova. Dumas dispatched Allstars Training Center representative Matej Penaz
with
a standing guillotine choke in the first round of their
middleweight affair. Dumas (7-0) drew the curtain 47
seconds into Round 1, authoring the third-fastest submission in
Dana White’s Contender Series history.

Penaz (6-1) was the victim of an all-out blitz. Dumas connected
with an overhand left, followed it into the clinch and landed a
seemingly effortless takedown. He briefly climbed to full mount,
caught the guillotine when Penaz scrambled and switched to a
high-elbow grip after they moved to a standing position along the
fence.

It was the second sub-minute stoppage of Dumas’ career.

Meanwhile, Rebecki put away Rodrigo
Lidio with a
no-hooks rear-naked choke in the first round of their lightweight
encounter. Rebecki (16-1)—who has not tasted defeat in
nearly eight years—slammed the door 3:05 into Round 1 and extended
his winning streak to 13 fights.

Lidio (12-3) failed to make the most of a seven-inch reach
advantage but managed to sneak in a partially blocked head kick
inside the first 30 seconds. An unfazed Rebecki closed the
distance, secured multiple takedowns and ultimately established his
dominance from top position. He progressed to side control, snaked
his arms around the neck and prompted the tapout while mostly
situated in Lidio’s side.

The loss snapped Lidio’s run of consecutive victories at four.

Elsewhere, Bilder remained undefeated, as the reigning Cage Fury
Fighting Championships titleholder submitted Tristar Gym export
Alex
Morgan with
a rear-naked choke in the first round of their featherweight
pairing. Bilder (7-0-1) brought it to a close 3:15
into Round 1.

Morgan (11-5) set a leisurely pace and fired off leg kicks, jabs
and multi-punch combinations, all while controlling the center of
the cage. Bilder buckled his knees with a surgical straight right
hand, jumped immediately to the back and cinched the choke for the
finish after a brief scramble and a few adjustments to the
grip.

Bilder, 32, has rattled off five straight wins.

Finally, Dudakova persevered through an apparent knee injury and
kept her perfect professional record intact, as she laid claim to a
unanimous decision over Maria
Silva in a three-round women’s strawweight clash. All three
cageside judges scored it the same: 29-28 for Dudakova (6-0), the
biggest underdog on the card.

Silva (8-1) enjoyed brief bursts of success throughout the match
and handled her business in the middle stanza, where she struck for
a takedown and achieved full mount. However, she could not keep the
determined Dudakova at bay. The unbeaten Russian prospect executed
multiple takedowns in the first and third rounds, piled up nearly
10 minutes of control time and applied her ground-and-pound with
varying degrees of intensity.