“I don’t see any areas that I think he’s [Brahimaj] going to trouble me standing personally,” Palatnikov, who trains out of Syndicate MMA in Las Vegas, told the Post. “I feel like they’re going to put pressure on me. Make me fight on the back foot.

“I’m expecting a grappler who’s probably got some decent power in his hands if he lands, as with anyone. Max ‘Pain’ [Griffin] gave me a blueprint on how to beat him. And stylistically it fits my style very well.

“Most people will expect the same kind of thing seeing my debut as well. He likes to fight on the outside, move and use footwork. Unless he’s really put a lot of time on his footwork and ring control, I feel like it will be a similar kind of night for him.”

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“The last time I was … it was a weird one,” he said. “I didn’t feel like myself. I felt a bit laggy. I think it was the timing. Just fighting at 8.30am was something that … I don’t know, my body just didn’t feel turned on. Now looking back I kinda understand how I need to be literally the moment I’m going out there instead of feeling a little bit tired.

“No excuses. I had a different kind of mindset, vision for the fight. And I thought it was going to go a different way and it became a wrestling match. I thought Impa would come out and we would be putting on a bit of a war. It happened the way it did and it’s a good lesson.”

The Kasanganay fight was a far cry from the Cosce bout, where a thrilling stand-up war earned the pair US$50,000 fight of the night bonuses, and saw them finish 10th in the UFC’s official 2020 Fight of the Year power rankings.

“I thought everything in terms of my takedown defence and everything was on point,” Palatnikov added. “So when I went in there I kinda expected, ‘Oh, he’s a 185-er coming down, he’s probably going to want to bang a little bit. He’s going to want to throw hands. But he didn’t do much of that and it became just kind of a wild scramble of a fight which I didn’t anticipate, but at the same time, I should have.

“I was too passive and he caught me. It’s like getting caught with a punch, I got caught with a choke. It was just a weird angle and I’ve been doing jiu-jitsu for a long time. Kudos to my opponent. He was able to get it right on the money and get it right in there. I kinda felt like I was checkmated at that moment and tapped. He got me on that but nine times out of 10 I feel like it’s a different fight every time.”

The former AFC middleweight champion has since added Frank Hickman – Syndicate’s new wrestling coach, and Palatnikov’s new roommate – to the mix, and insisted he feels bigger, stronger and more powerful than ever.

“I expect my shots to be a lot more dangerous early on,” Palatnikov said. “I feel fast, I feel explosive. I’m a little bit heavier. When I first joined the UFC, they told me I had a good 10 pounds I could gain. So my strength and conditioning coach has been helping me a lot with that.

“I just feel like I pack a punch. I’m gonna have good movement. I’m gonna be hard to hit. It’s gonna feel really like it’s my coming out party cause the last one was a bit of a hiccup, so this one will be the one where people will be kinda, ‘Oh yeah, I remember that guy’. So hopefully get some attention back.”