LAS VEGAS – Rei Tsuruya stayed unbeaten and won his UFC debut Saturday, but maybe not in the way he dreamed it up.

Tsuruya (10-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) held on and took a trio of 29-28 scores on the early prelims against Carlos Hernandez (9-4 MMA, 2-3 UFC) at UFC 303 at T-Mobile Arena. Tsuruya said he was hoping to get a finish.

“The grappling is something I expected,” Tsuruya said. “I definitely wanted to finish in the first round. I tried – armlocks, knees – I tried a lot of stuff, but I just couldn’t get that finish.”

Still, Tsuruya said he’s happy to stay unbeaten and get his UFC debut out of the way with a win and experience at that level of competition.

Check out Tsuruya’s full post-fight news conference in the video above.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 303.

Be sure to visit the MMA Junkie Instagram page and YouTube channel to discuss this and more content with fans of mixed martial arts.