CHICAGO – After a loss in his UFC debut, Dan Ige knew he needed to do something impressive in his second outing. But when he came out in the first fight of the night and hurt Mike Santiago right away at UFC 225, he also knew he needed to stay calm and finish the job.

“I knew I hurt him, but I didn’t want to get too antsy,” Ige said backstage. “I had to stick to the game plan and take the fight to the ground, where I know I’m going to excel and finish the fight on the ground. But even on the ground, when I had his back I wasn’t thinking to choke him out or submit him. I was just thinking damage, damage, damage. If the choke comes, great. But I was trying to finish with ground-and-pound.”

Ige (9-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) did exactly that, and it only took him 50 seconds to earn the TKO stoppage.

Still, one thing Ige wasn’t so happy about was UFC President Dana White’s insistence that the UFC will revert to afternoon weigh-ins after a spate of misses during morning weigh-ins.

Ige has been a vocal supporter of allowing fighters to weigh-in early so they can begin the rehydration process, and he blamed a few bad apples for the UFC’s decision to go back to the old system.

“It sucks, man,” Ige said. “People are cutting so much weight and not professional, just showing up. Walk around at a lighter weight. You’ll perform better. Just because you put 30 pounds on doesn’t mean you’re going to go in there and excel better in the cage.

“I was 158 pounds, 157 probably stepping in the (cage),” Ige continued. “That’s 10 pounds heavier (than the featherweight limit). I barely cut any weight. I just cut maybe three pounds the night before, two pounds the day of the weigh-ins, showed up and made the weight like a professional. … I’m sure that guy put on a lot more weight than me and I finished him in 50 seconds.

“So just because you’re putting on all this weight and cutting a bunch of weight, it doesn’t mean you’re going to perform better. Please keep the morning weigh-ins. I tweeted that.”

For complete coverage of UFC 225, check out the UFC Events section of the site.