Diego Ferreira wasn’t surprised he was such a big underdog to Mateusz Rebecki at UFC St. Louis, but despite that, he thought it was a good matchup for him.
Ferreira was ending his year-long layoff, but in the first round, the Brazilian got dropped. The two had a clash of heads, which the ref didn’t notice, so as Ferreira tried to wipe his head to check for blood, Rebecki dropped him.
“He was rushing in so much, he kind of headbutted me and I put my attention to wipe my face to see if I was bleeding. I looked down and in kind of threw me off. It was at that moment that he hit me with his left and he hit me in the nose and I fell on my butt. It wasn’t too significant from the headbutt, it was more that I took my attention away from him,” Ferreira said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com.
Despite getting dropped in the first round at UFC St. Louis, Ferreira was still happy with his performance as he knew the first round would be tough. But, the Brazilian had confidence the longer the fight went, the better for him.
“That was the game plan. I knew he was going to come aggressive and try and take my head off. I knew the longer the fight went, he was going to fade, and I have good cardio. Going into the fight, I knew I was going to get hit but I stayed composed and he was rushing trying to land the left,” Ferreira said.
Diego Ferreira ended up taking over in the second and third rounds, as he dominated Mateusz Rebecki. He was landing heavy shots, as Rebecki’s eyes began to close.
Ultimately, Ferreira got the TKO win with nine seconds left, but the Brazilian believes Rebecki’s corner should have stopped it much sooner to save their fighter.
“I looked at his face and was like ‘Oh my God’ he got beat up. He got beat up badly, but that is not my job to stop it. That is the ref’s job, or I feel like his corner should have stopped it,” Ferreira said. “I don’t think he was supposed to go that far, when I saw his second eye close after the fight, I felt bad. In the moment, I didn’t care, but I saw all the photos, and I felt so bad. I think his corner and the ref could have prevented that from happening.”
With Ferreira getting the TKO win, the goal is to return soon and hopes he can get a matchup with Bobby Green next.
“I want to see if I can get back to the rankings, fight Bobby Green. Fight someone in the rankings, or if Gamrot wants to fight me again. It was his night, but I think I can do better,” Ferreira concluded.
