The Brazilian flyweight made his UFC debut in Abu Dhabi against Top 15-ranked Tagir Ulanbekov, and that’s one heck of an opportunity, as not many fighters get to make their promotional debut against someone with a number next to their name.
Nascimento almost made the most of it. His fight with Ulanbekov was uber close and, in the end, the judges decided to give his opponent the split decision nod. It was a disappointing moment for Nascimento, but he didn’t dwell on it for too long.
Watch UFC Fight Night: Blachowicz vs Rakic On ESPN+
He decided to put all that energy and motivation into the lead-up to his next bout, which comes this weekend against Jake Hadley.
“I had the best camp to do this fight on UFC Fight Night,” Nascimento told UFC.com. “I came here to make a war.”
View Nascimento’s Athlete Profile
The reason that Nascimento is looking to make this flyweight bout with Hadley “a war” is that he felt like there were moments in his last fight where Ulanbekov was just trying to hang on for the win instead of fighting him.
“My last opponent, Ulanbekov, held me on the floor and maybe didn’t fight with me, so now I come with a different mindset for this fight,” Nascimento said. “In my last fight, to me, I was more aggressive, but I still lost by a split decision.”