George Staines is UFC bound. The former Cage Warriors standout improved to 10-0 by knocking out Loai Abushaar with a vicious slam in the first round of Tuesday's Contender Series main event at Meta Apex in Las Vegas, and Dana White wasted no time awarding him a contract.

Staines and Abushaar traded low kicks before Staines found the finish that ended the night. Abushaar, who came in at 7-1, was the bigger man at 155 pounds, and White made a point of that when he handed Staines his contract.

White told Bloody Elbow, "Alright, George, you were up against a massive guy at 155lbs and you absolutely destroyed him, it was one of the greatest finishes ever, you made it look easy, congratulations and welcome to the UFC."

The result set off celebrations from Staines' training partner Paddy Pimblett, who was reportedly jumping over chairs watching the finish live. Pimblett is currently ranked fifth at lightweight in the UFC and last fought on July 11, submitting Benoit Saint Denis with a D'Arce choke in just 52 seconds of the first round. Our Elo model has Pimblett rated at 1564 across six tracked bouts, and having a teammate come through Contender Series in this kind of fashion only adds another name to that camp's growing list of talent.

Staines' win came in Week 8 of Contender Series Season 10, and it capped off a main event that MMA Mania and Yahoo Sports both flagged as one of the standout finishes of the season. Fans have already started picking the fight apart on Reddit, with a thread on r/MMA dedicated to breaking down the Abushaar-Staines bout as clips circulated.

For Staines, the jump from Cage Warriors prospect to UFC roster member came in one night, and it came with the backing of a training partner who is currently pushing for contention in one of the promotion's deepest divisions.