Makwan Amirkhani may have had a life changing moment last night. The Finnish fighter made one of the most impressive UFC debuts in history with an 8 second TKO win over Andy Ogle. However, as Conor McGregor has shown, there's more than just fighting ability needed to quickly scale the UFC ranks.
Amirkhani dusted himself off from his night's work and set to making a lot of fans. If McGregor did that with brash confidence in the aftermath of his debut win, the Finn is doing it by being a very likeable kind of chap. To borrow some wrestling terminology, he could conceivably be the face to Conor McGregor's heel not too far down the line.
It started immediately at the media scrum just after the fight. Amirkhani was asked what he would do with the €50,000 performance bonus if he was to receive it. He's going to buy a bed for his Mam.
It then continued in the fight press conference, after the €50,000 bonus had been confirmed.
There’s me and my sister and my mom living in the same house, and we have only two rooms. So my mom gave the rooms to us, and she sleeps in the living room on a mat. And, it’s not nice, but what can I do?
She gave the bed for us. Now, when I go home and I move to Stockholm, I will give her the room, and I will buy a – I think with $10,000 – a bed that flies.
His response to Joe Rogan's line of questioning in the immediate aftermath of the stoppage win has also seen him win quite a few fans.
We're looking into a crystal ball here but if the UFC's PR machine is put in motion behind Amirkhani, he could certainly keep going places. Although, you have to think he'll have to prove that he can actually take a hit some time soon.
