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.”