UFC Vegas 55: Joseph Holmes Says UFC Debut Loss Led To First Win

Las Vegas, NV – Fighters often say you learn the most from a loss. For Joseph Holmes, his UFC debut led to his best performance yet.

Holmes (8-2) picked up his first UFC win at UFC Vegas 55 when he submitted Alen Amedovski after landing a nasty knee that dropped the Macedonian fighter. It was picture-perfect performance, and it only lasted a little over a minute.

“Ugly Joe” lost his UFC debut against Jamie Pickett via unanimous decision in January, but he said that loss led to the great performance against Amedovski.

“Without that debut, I probably wouldn’t have won like that, just now. That debut I had was a huge learning lesson for me,” Holmes told Cageside Press during his UFC Vegas 55 post-fight interview. “Not just you know, I can take a punch, or I can go three rounds with the best men in the world. But you know, you have to be prepared, and you have to implement your own game. You can’t go in there and do what the other guy wants you to do. You gotta you got to do what you’re supposed to do and listen to your coaches. And I learned that from my debut for sure.”

The 26-year-old says he had the best camp of his life ahead of this performance, and it showed. The game plan was pretty simple, stay away from his opponent’s knockout power.

“This is probably the best performance I’ve ever had. Following the best camp I’ve ever had with the best body I’ve ever had. This is all just incredible. I’m super blessed to get the camp that I had. Thanks to my management team for setting that fight up,” Holmes said. “The game plan was to have active feet, be smaller in my stance, throw a lot of jabs and just kind of not worry about his power that he has in those in his hands. Alen is a tough guy, so I just needed to stay away from his power and take them down any chance I get. So it’s either all the way in or all the way out. I think I did that pretty well.”

Holmes didn’t have anyone he wanted to fight next but hopes to fight again in late August.

Watch the full UFC Vegas 55 post-fight media scrum with Joseph Holmes above. More coverage from the event can be found below.