“Yeah, it felt pretty good,” he said. “After watching it, I had mixed feelings about it. I definitely used most of my tools compared to his. It was obvious he was just throwing hands, and I was throwing hands and feet, so I got to use a bunch of my tools, had a few takedowns and stuff, so it felt good; there were just a few things I saw I definitely could have done better on, especially in the beginning of the round. I’m a slow starter, so I’m somewhat trying to work on that, but, at the same time, it’s hard for my body to do something that it’s trying not to do. I always heard that expression ‘fools rush in,’ so I’m always cautious about tagging the person first or going in first in the first round because they have all their strength and they have a lot of energy. So it’s mixed feelings about going in first. So I’m trying to work on that.”
Dana White’s 12 Days of Giveaways Is Underway!
It’s the perfectionist in the 33-year-old, who gets the quotation marks around the words official UFC win since he stopped Domingo Pilarte in 37 seconds in their 2020 bout in Texas, only to see it overturned to a no contest due to a positive test for marijuana. It’s still a sore spot with Newson, who still sees it as a win.
“I count that all day, for sure,” he laughs, but now that the “official” win is out of the way, he can start moving forward in a crowded bantamweight division, with the next step being a Saturday meeting with Sergey Morozov.
