When Edmen Shahbazyan returned to his hotel room after suffering his first professional loss, the 23-year-old didn’t have any questions about what went wrong against Derek Brunson.
“I was looking for one big shot,” Shahbazyan told UFC.com. “It wasn’t happening, so it was like, ‘Come on. Come on. Come on.’ That eventually made me get an adrenaline dump, and the rest was history.”
The second-round TKO loss halted Shahbazyan’s fast ascension up the middleweight rankings, and it’s hard to blame him for seeking a quick finish. All but one of his 11 pro wins came in the first round, and heading into his fight with Brunson, Shahbazyan was coming off a breakout performance – a first-round head kick knockout of Brad Tavares in Madison Square Garden at UFC 244.