Sergei Pavlovich was happy to be victorious at UFC Fight Night 257, but he was also critical of his own performance.

“I don’t usually like to say this, but today I must’ve shown like 50 percent of what I can actually do,” Pavlovich said through an interpreter during a post-fight interview with the UFC. I’m a little disappointed with that. I should’ve done more.”

Perhaps that is true, but what Pavlovich did for 15 minutes was good enough to earn a unanimous decision win over Waldo Cortes-Acosta on Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai. While Pavlovich’s striking attack proved to be too much for Cortes-Acosta, the outcome was far from the statement finish the Russian heavyweight hoped to have achieved.

“I wanted to knock him out, I wanted to get him out of there, I hit him in the head I don’t know how many times, but he just wouldn’t go down,” Pavlovich said. “He’s got a really strong head. …

“I should’ve added more combinations. We worked on combinations back in training, but two is not enough. Maybe we should do three and four. More combinations, I think, would’ve gotten him out of there.”

It wasn’t long ago that Pavlovich was knocking on the door of becoming UFC heavyweight champion after winning six consecutive fights by first-round knockout. Tom Aspinall, however, changed the trajectory of Pavlovich’s career in November 2023 at UFC 295. Another loss to Alexander Volkov followed, but now Pavlovich is back on track with two victories in 2025. He also beat Jairzinho Rozenstruik by decision in February.

As far as what comes next, all Pavlovich cares about is returning to the doorstep of the UFC heavyweight title.

“To be honest, I do not care who I fight next,” Pavlovich said. “The idea is to get in the title race. Whoever’s next, I’m ready to go.”

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Dominant UFC Shanghai heavyweight keeps it real after win