Last Saturday, Germany’s number one lightweight Nick Hein suffered a decision loss to unbeaten TUF veteran James Vick at UFC Fight Night: Edgar vs. Swanson. The judges scored the fight 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 in favor of Vick, what even made his homestate crowd in Austin, Texas boo.

“I am angry, but not at the decision,” said Hein when talking to Groundandpound.de via phone. “I simply didn’t do enough and missed my chances. After the knockdowns, I should have gone knee on stomach and two or three punches could have finished the fight. Usually I take my opponents down at least once a fight – not this time, though. I am angry that I left it in the judge’s hands.”

The scoring of the fight seemed a bit awkward nonetheless, with one judge giving Hein’s opponent all three of the rounds, even if he got knocked down twice in the first frame by the German police officer.

“I am wondering if there are 10-8 rounds in MMA. And, if so, how many times I have to knock a guy down to get them,” Hein asked.

Still, the 30 year old lightweight does not want to get into a discussion about hometown decisions. If he had finished the fight in the first round, there simply would have been no reason for any discussion in the first place, he said. He blames the new experience to fight in the US, far away from home for the first time, for his lack of activity in the latter rounds. Vick used his range well in the second and third frame and picked at Hein form the outside to score the decision win.

But Nick Hein went back to his hometown of Cologne, Germany with his head held high.

“It wasn’t the most beautiful fight, but a solid one,” he said. “It has been a lot of hard work, but it was worth it.”

After the fight, the UFC immediately gave him a call and booked him for a media tour in Goteborg, Sweden next week. Talks about a UFC comeback in spring are already in progress, he added.

“I am not disappointed with the fight,” Hein assured. “I came to fight, and with the UFC that’s sometimes even better than a clean record.”