“It’s an amazing feeling to have my name in the history books. It’s an honour to represent Hong Kong and I hope to bring some more eyes to MMA in my city. I hope people can see that I’m trying to put Hong Kong on the map.”

“I want people to understand that I can be the beginning of a big movement of next generation fighters that will in time be challenging for world titles in the future,” he added. “If I can go down as a pioneer for the sport that would make me so happy and I hope I can inspire young athletes to pursue their dreams of becoming world champions.”

For now, Palatnikov is enjoying a few days off in Seoul “doing the tourist thing” and resting up before returning to Hong Kong on Friday.

“I’ll have a sit down with my management team and discuss the next upcoming challenge,” he said. “Either defend this belt or go down and fight for the 77kg world title.

“Either way, I’m excited for the next one. I mean the goal stays the same – I want to be representing Hong Kong in the UFC. I’m all about making history and this is another opportunity to do so.”

It was a five-round war inside the Sindorim Techno Mart Grand Ballroom and Palatnikov admitted he had to switch to plan B early on.

“Going into the fight I truly believed I was going to keep it standing,” he said. “But after discussing game plans with [coach and UFC fighter] Alberto Mina, we knew that the takedown was always going to be another road to victory, as my opponent was taller, heavier and longer than me, so it may have been an issue to really dominate the stand up with his length.

“After the first couple exchanges we got into the clinch and I didn’t feel he was strong in that position. So dropping to the single leg takedown was a no-brainer. I felt I dominated top position on the ground and had to be wary of submissions and sweeps off of his back. It was a little back and forth but I felt I was landing the more significant strikes on the ground.

“Don’t get me wrong, going into the fifth round I didn’t want to leave any inkling in the judges’ minds that this could go either way so I knew that I had to dominate, which was exactly what I did. Honestly, I thought I was going to finish him in the last round but all credit goes to my opponent for staying tough.”

Palatnikov also had to battle through an eye injury after his opponent was yellow-carded for an illegal up-kick.

“It really affected my vision and definitely rocked me a bit,” he admitted. “But after getting some time with the doctor my vision improved. I actually had no idea he was yellow carded until I read the reports from after the fight.

“So it was a significant blow to take. But like I said to you before I’m willing to die in the cage to win so it wasn’t going to change anything.”