By Romeo Cabras Jr:

With an impressive debut this weekend at UFC on Fuel TV 2, Siyar Bahadurzada made quick work of Paulo Thiago capturing Knockout of the Night honors in just 42 seconds. But, he did so with a possible broken hand.

He’s been here before. The Afghan native has already seen his share of broken hands using the standard 4-ounce gloves for the sport. He had broken his hand prior to his camp for this fight and nursed it about two or three weeks out, where he began sparring sessions.

Then he reinjured his hand 10 days before fight night as he landed a punch on the side of a sparring partner’s head. But, despite the injury, he stood his ground in the octagon. Waited for the right moment and launched a short right as Thiago swung a looping right hand, flooring the Brazilian out cold.

An X-ray taken today will determine the damage to his hand and his expected recovery window.

He spoke with mmajunkie.com about his return to action, strategy against Paulo Thiago, and fight style:

“Hopefully it’s not broken. If it’s not broken, I’ll be ready to fight again soon.”

“When the fight starts, it starts mentally, Then it gets physical. If you back down mentally, you’re done. It’s over. And when you make it a point to not back down mentally, you confuse him, and that’s when you start winning the fight.”

“Paulo Thiago’s a tough guy. He might be used to backing down people mentally, but it didn’t happen to me. Maybe that confused him.”

“A lot of people have difficulty with my style of fighting because my style of fighting is a weird style,It’s my timing.”

“But I think I will always be the underdog. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because of my style; maybe it’s because people don’t know me yet. I don’t have any trouble with that.”

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