Austin Vanderford made a winning start to his UFC career on Saturday night.
The 34-year-old secured a dramatic TKO victory over Nikolay Veretennikov at UFC Seattle.
Vanderford’s first bout with the promotion came on just four days’ notice as he faced off with the Ukrainian in a 175lbs catchweight contest.
After subjecting Veretennikov to a flurry of ground and pound strikes, the former Bellator title challenger was declared victorious.
However, his arm was only raised after his opponent had stormed across the octagon to confront Vanderford.
Following the finish, Veretennikov went over to push Vanderford, with security stepping in to separate the pair.
The incident was quickly dealt with, though, and UFC president Dana White brushed it aside during his post-fight press conference.
White told reporters: “Listen, yeah, it’s never good when you go over and I don’t know why he went after him, I understand he was upset with the referee.
“If you watch that fight, when you look, I get why he was upset. He was blocking a lot of the shots, he was trying to get out of there.
“Then as soon as the fight was over, listen, if a guy is taking a number of unanswered shots and laying there on the ground (then I understand).
“He was defending and moving around, so I understand why he was upset. But you know how we are here, he went over and pushed the guy, what should we do? What Paul Daley did was completely different; you just had three five-minute rounds to punch this guy in the head and you couldn’t.
“So you’re going to go punch this guy in the face after the fight when he doesn’t expect it? That’s why that was done.
“He went over and pushed him, we aren’t those guys… You should see what goes on (backstage) here after the fights.
“You guys would be f***ing crying forever if you knew what went on. You’d be writing f***ing all kinds of stories and ‘what are you going to do to them?’ Believe me, that was nothing.”
Former British fighter Paul Daley was cut by the promotion in 2010 after sucker-punching Josh Koscheck following the final bell when they fought at UFC 113.
Meanwhile, Vanderford now boasts a professional record of 13-2 after his long-awaited UFC debut.
The Gentleman has previously competed at both welterweight and middleweight in his career.
He is also married to former UFC fighter Paige VanZant, who went 5-4 during six years with the promotion.
VanZant has since competed for Misfits Boxing and BKFC since her UFC exit five years ago.
The 30-year-old was also in her husband’s corner at Climate Pledge Arena last night.