Billy Goff and Yusaku Kinoshita, two Dana White’s Contender Series veterans, faced off at UFC Singapore on Saturday.
Both men won their contract with big knockouts but while Kinoshita lost his UFC debut to Adam Fugitt, Goff had yet to make his debut and rode a six-fight winning streak into this bout. With a combined ten finishes in fourteen career wins, this welterweight match-ups seemed likely to avoid the scorecards.
Kinoshita came out southpaw and launched a headkick at the orthodox Goff. Yusaku then landed a clean straight left while pressing forward, though Goff stayed in it and came back with a body shot. The pace was high in the opening minutes and after one minute Goff turned the pressure around on Kinoshita, but still was eating the more significant strikes. Goff added leg kicks to his attacks with some success.
Goff shot in for a takedown halfway through the first round but had it stuffed with ease. After that he upped the pace even more and really began pushing the volume on his foe. Kinoshita had cleaner striking it seemed, but the pace and pressure of Billy Goff began to take over the fight. Suddenly, the American targeted the body with a big straight right hand which dropped his opponent to his knees. As Kinoshita turtled up, Goff rained down ground strikes which made the referee step in and stop the fight.
Billy Goff turned up big time in his UFC debut. He showed a good chin, pace, pressure, and impressive body work for such a young fighter and put himself into the conversation for a performance bonus at the end of the night, surely.
Official Result: Billy Goff def. Yusaku Kinoshita by TKO (body shot to ground strikes) Round 1, 3:49
