And when asked by his coach after the fight if he thought he was the victim of a quick hook from referee Herb Dean, Greene declined to take that opportunity to shift blame.
“I said, ‘Coach, even if Herb stopped it early, if I wouldn’t have put Herb Dean in the position to make a tough decision, we wouldn’t have been in that position. So whose fault is it? It’s my fault.”
That’s class. But the way 33-year-old sees it, it’s only way to look at the fight.
“That’s just how it is,” Greene said. “You want something to play out in your favor, you need to go do it. It wasn’t that I wasn’t doing the right things; he was able to get me and we knew that could happen.”
Needless to say, Greene has moved on, and in getting a UFC 246 main card bout against top 15 ranked Aleksei Oleinik, it’s clear that the UFC has not looked at the Pavlovich loss as a deal breaker, either.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity with the UFC and now it’s time to go out and make the most of it; it’s time to shine,” said Greene.
But is the experienced and battle-tested Oleinik too much too soon for Greene, who has only two more pro fights (12) than the Russian has UFC bouts (10)?