Devin Powell set the tone for the UFC Calgary by stopping Alvaro Herrera in under two minutes with a couple of big liver kicks.
Powell's coach and longtime UFC fighter Joe Lauzon spoke to Fightful.com's James Lynch immediately after the fight, and thinks that Powell overcame one of this biggest weaknesses with the show-stealing finish.
"He's way too nice. The big thing was him being a little more aggressive. He's always being so nice, I'm like 'pick it up a little bit.' You can't be pacing yourself for a 25 minute fight when you're fighting for 15 minutes. Be more aggressive, you don't get paid by the round," Lauzon told Fightful
With Powell's back against the wall with two straight losses, but Lauzon says Powell's persistence on social media helped get him another crack at the UFC.
"You've always got something to lose. But he was in a good situation. He had two fights that didn't go so great, lost close fights but came up on the short end. Non stop harassing Dana White on Twitter and Instagram, tagging the UFC, he ruptured his ball and got back in the UFC," Lauzon said.
For Lauzon himself, he isn't sure when he'll be back, but he needs some time off after a losing skid of his own.
"I've had way too much stuff going on the last two years and couldn't focus on training as much as I wanted to. I'm going to take a little time, hit the reset button and we'll see what happens," Lauzon said.
Powell also spoke to reporters backstage right after his bout, and said that he wasn't sure if he'd ever be back in the UFC, and certainly didn't think that he'd finish Herrera in the first round.
"I had surgery, I didn't know if I'd be in the UFC still because the division's so big. I kept tagging the UFC, Dana White, and got one on three days' notice and it worked out for me. I thought it was going to be the first time he got dragged into deep waters, he finishes fights fast or gets finished," Powell said.
Powell said despite his "ruptured nut" that Lauzon mentioned earlier, Powell wasn't fearful of getting kicked in the groin.
You can see Fightful's playlist of UFC Calgary interviews at this link.
