LAS VEGAS – Making your UFC debut is always a test of a fighter’s mettle, but for Nate Maness, it was a particularly tough assignment.

The former TKO bantamweight champion made his UFC debut against fellow short-notice newcomer Johnny Munoz at UFC on ESPN+ 31 and suffered a succession of groin shots – some that were called, some that weren’t – as he handed his opponent his first professional loss after a grueling three rounds at UFC Apex.

Maness bounced back from a tricky opening round to claim scores of 29-27 on all three scorecards, registering a hard-earned victory in his first UFC appearance. But the biggest shock to his system wasn’t the experience of making his first the walk to the octagon; it was the ordeal of being hit below the belt for the first time in his career.

“Man, I guess I feel good,” Maness smiled as he spoke to the media, including MMA Junkie, following his victory. “It’s been a really crazy week, a really crazy fight. I’ve never been low-blowed in 10 years of fighting, so to have six or seven here tonight, it’s a little different.”

Maness (12-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) spent a large part of the first round on the defensive, as Munoz (10-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) took him to the mat and dominated proceedings. But Maness sharpened up his takedown defense in Rounds 2 and 3 and held the upper hand in the striking exchanges to edge the verdict on the scorecards.

But, despite a gritty performance, the big talking point of the fight was Maness being on the receiving end of a number of low shots. Three were called by referee Mark Smith, who eventually deducted a point from Munoz in Round 3, but Maness revealed there were other groin shots that escaped the referee’s attention.

“I didn’t think he was going to take a point,” Maness admitted. “I felt like he was a pretty good ref in there, but I think I had to do a bit of complaining for me to actually get a little justice. There were three or four that didn’t even get called. You obviously don’t want to win like that – I wish it didn’t happen, too – but yeah, I wasn’t sure if he was going to call anything or not.”

Apart from the obvious pain, Maness knew he had to bounce back as quickly as he could since he felt he had the better conditioning against his opponent, who stepped in on one day’s notice to take the fight.

“I didn’t want him to take a break,” he explained. “I could hear him breathing when we were up against the cage, and my main thing was I’ve got to keep pushing, I’ve got to keep pushing. I’ve got to be in his face. I’ve got to keep pushing the issue. I don’t want him to rest, and that’s really what got me through it.

“The first one hurt pretty bad. The second, it just kind of hit me, and I got my breath pretty close. The third one actually put me on my butt for a minute, and there were two or three in there that didn’t even get called. There was a lot – against the fence, knees. We can watch it. He wanted to watch the replay – we can do that. Me and him can sit down together and watch the replay. It was kind of crazy.”

In the end, though, it was Maness’ ability to avoid Munoz’s takedowns in the second and third rounds that proved crucial, and he earned the edge in a tough, competitive encounter.

“I had to keep him off of me to win this fight,” he explained. “I felt like I did a decent job of that once I got a feel for him in that first round. Nothing really surprised me, though. That was a tough fight.

When the verdict came, it gave Maness a winning start to life in the UFC, but he admitted he wasn’t fully confident in his win while he was waiting for the verdict to be announced.

“I thought it was really close; just being honest,” Maness said. “I feel like it could have went either way. He was a really tough kid. You have those fights sometimes. We’re at the highest level.”

With his first win safely secured, Maness said he’d love to jump back into the octagon before the end of the year and even offered a couple of potential matchups he’d be interested in taking.

“I’d love to fight one more time this year, for sure,” he said. “If they need somebody to step up, I’m going to try to stay ready, rest a week or two. I have a (few) little knocks here and there. But yeah, I’m ready to go.

“I know there’s a couple of ’35ers on the card with me. Cody Durden just got the call; I’ve tried to fight him a couple of times. Me and him can run it. If Ray Borg wants to show up, we can run it. I’m ready to go.”