Las Vegas, NV – There are a lot of ways a UFC debut can go, but to finish someone in devastating fashion may be the best case scenario. Lightweight Manuel Torres made a huge statement with his TKO win over Frank Camacho at UFC Vegas 54 on Saturday night.
Torres spoke on his feelings following such a violent fight.
“I think the feeling is the same as any fighter. The nerves, little beat of fear, emotions, but that’s what I want, that’s what I’m doing. Very happy to just have won the fight,” Torres said to reporters through a translator at his post-fight scrum.
The fight had moments where Torres and Camacho seemed to decide to brawl with both men throwing looping punches, and wild techniques at times.
“The plan was actually to change it up a little bit and just always try to punch, always find holes, because that’s my style of fighting. That’s what I always want. I want to just find the holes and just try and knock them down,” Torres said.
“All of the sudden it became that, and we just went with it.”
As wild as the fight became Torres still managed to keep an eye out for the holes he was looking for and he took advantage of one to finish the fight.
“As I said, I was going to try and to find the holes while he was moving his hands, and specially when he was opening up his guard. When I just found it, it was there. I took it,” said Torres.
Referee Herb Dean seemed to stop the fight as soon as Camacho hit the ground leaving many to wonder if this was an early stoppage.
“I got surprised a little bit (by the stoppage) and actually when he got down to the ground I was kind of hesitant. Do I stay or do I go (to the ground) and when I got close I remembered he’s a black belt so I kind of stayed back a little bit,” Torres said.
Torres mentioned that it was surprising at the moment, but that he knew Camacho was badly hurt.
‘El Loco’ mentioned he wants to get back in the octagon as soon as possible
As for the nickname of ‘El Loco’ Torres revealed it’s origin for reporters.
“It was a friend of mine from my childhood, from my hometown of Chihuahua, he’s been with me for quite some time. He supported me way back, and he just put the nickname there,” Torres said.
“El Loco because I’m crazy.”
Watch Manuel Torres’ full UFC Vegas 54 post-fight media scrum above. More coverage from the event can be found below.