Las Vegas, NV – Despite his fight ending due to a head butt resulting in a bad cut for his opponent, UFC lightweight Nazim Sadykhov was happy with his promotional debut at UFC Vegas 69 on Saturday night.
“Feeling great. First UFC victory, UFC debut, feel amazing,” Sadykhov told Cageside Press among other media at his post-fight scrum.
Sadykhov (8-1) had spoken about feeling the UFC “jitters” during his post-fight interview, but he cleared that up when speaking with reporters.
“Overall I know first fights for people’s careers can go worse you know? People lose the first fights, or whatever may be. I’m coming off a win, a finish, and that always makes you happy,” he said.
Despite the fight officially being a finish Sadykhov wasn’t completely happy with the fight.
“I hold myself to a high standard. I want to be dominant. I wanted tonight to be like a big introduction, you know, for the lightweights to know who I am. I’m sure I did that, but not the way that I would have liked to, but it’s ok. We’re going to get better from here,” he said.
“Keep training, and make that statement next time I’m in the cage.”
Sadykhov mentioned he was aware of how the cut happened during the fight and it wasn’t due to any strikes he threw.
“It was a head butt. We clashed heads. Like I said he was leading with his head and it was going in an unpredictable direction then we collided. He hit on the side of the head. We butt heads,” he said.
Sadykhov gave credit to his gym, LAW MMA, with head coach Ray Longo for the way his skills have developed.
“You know about the puke drills, huh,” Sadykhov said to Cageside Press. “Yeah man puke drills…that’s what prepares you in a crazy way.”
His home country of Azerbaijan was also a source of motivation for the lightweight.
“I’m representing a nation. I represent New York as well. I’ve seen some feedback that like well if you like Azerbaijan so much go back. Don’t say that. I love Brooklyn. I love New York. I love America. I represent my people, I’m Azerbaijani, that’s my ethnicity,” Sadykhov said.
“But that doesn’t mean that I hate something else. I represent USA and Azerbaijan. If you give me two flags on each shoulder to walk out in I’d gladly do that. I grew up in this country, but I don’t forget where I came from, where my parents came from. Azerbaijan has a rough history, a rich history, so I’m going to represent. So if anybody has a problem, if anybody’s not with us, then they’re not with us.”
Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Nazim Sadykhov above.
