LAS VEGAS – Rei Tsuruya stayed unbeaten and won his UFC debut Saturday, but maybe not in the way he dreamed it up.
Tsuruya (10-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) held on and took a trio of 29-28 scores on the early prelims against Carlos Hernandez (9-4 MMA, 2-3 UFC) at UFC 303 at T-Mobile Arena. Tsuruya said he was hoping to get a finish.
“The grappling is something I expected,” Tsuruya said. “I definitely wanted to finish in the first round. I tried – armlocks, knees – I tried a lot of stuff, but I just couldn’t get that finish.”
Still, Tsuruya said he’s happy to stay unbeaten and get his UFC debut out of the way with a win and experience at that level of competition.
Check out Tsuruya’s full post-fight news conference in the video above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 303.
