An American who fell in love with MMA when he started a fight club in high school just won a UFC contract

• C.J. Vergara showed how painful repeated knee strikes can be at a Contender Series event Tuesday.
• The American fighter's performance was so impressive that Dana White handed him a UFC contract.
• Vergara's love for MMA began when he founded a fight club while he was in high school.

MMA fighter C.J. Vergara, 30, showed how painful knee strikes to the body can be as he dropped his opponent Bruno Korea with those shots during a Contender Series match Tuesday.

The Contender Series is a separate entity to the UFC, designed to funnel promising talent into the world-leading MMA promotion from its Apex television studio in Las Vegas.

Vergara, an American athlete, needed only 41 seconds to dismantle Korea, who had been attempting to engage him in a stand-up battle.

Happy to take part in a striking match, Vergara cracked Korea with an almighty jaw-bound punch, clinched, and then thumped his ribs with a close-range knee that dropped the Brazilian.

Korea scrambled back to his feet but Vergara got a grip on him, refused to let go, and attempted five more knee strikes.

That last knee did fight-ending damage. Korea went down in a heap, mentally cursing Vergara for the pain he'd caused his organs.

Vergara had time to land one additional punch while Korea was in that downed position, in no fit state to continue, before the referee stormed across the Octagon to call things off.

It was all over.

Watch it right here:

-UFC (@ufc) September 8, 2021

"This kid's had five wins in a row, five knockouts," said the UFC boss Dana White shortly before the Contender Series show had finished. "[He] absolutely destroyed a real guy tonight, and he was a 2-1 underdog."

It was the biggest night of Vergara's career, having begun his love of MMA when he started a fight club in high school, according to the ESPN broadcast.

"You couldn't look more impressive than this kid looked tonight," White continued.

"He's going to be on top of the world right now, and it's not like he's sitting there, wondering what's going to happen right now. Get over here, C.J," the UFC president said, before handing Vergara his first-ever UFC deal.

-UFC (@ufc) September 8, 2021

Victory advanced Vergara's pro MMA record to nine wins (six knockouts and three decisions) against two losses.

It is currently unclear when he will make his fighting debut at an official UFC show.