BERLIN – Makwan Amirkhani continued to display brilliance at UFC Fight Night 69 when he submitted Masio Fullen in the first round for his 10th win his past 11 fights.

Amirkhani (12-2 MMA, 2-0 UFC) showed potential to be a future featherweight star with his eight-second knockout of Andy Ogle at UFC on FOX 14 in January. He delivered again his sophomore UFC effort with the rear-naked choke finish of Fullen (10-5 MMA, 1-1 UFC).

However, what was even memorable than his performance was Amirkhani’s heartfelt post-fight interview. Emotion brought “Mr. Finland” to tears as Amirkhani explained the difficulty of being separated from his family during training camp.

Amirkhani moved to Sweden to prepare for the contest and slept in the gym as a way to draw motivation for the bout. It worked, and once his hard work paid off, Amirkhani explained the difficulty in his decision.

“Some young people they don’t understand that (it’s hard) when your mom raises you all your life and you suddenly just disappear from the house and don’t visit the family that much,” Amirkhani told MMAjunkie. “You don’t know how much they have been doing work for you to be an adult. There has to always be something, somehow to say thank you to your parent and this is my way to thank my mom.

“I’m sorry my dad isn’t here but even more my mom because we are eight kids, and it’s not easy to raise eight kids from in the middle of the war and come to Finland when you don’t know a single word and you have eight kids with you. Even this is not enough to describe how thankful I am to my mom.”

Amirkhani earned a $50,000 fight-night bonus for his win in January. He hoped to receive the same for his effort at UFC Fight Night 69 but was not granted the award. Despite that, he still intends to use his win money to buy a gift for his mom.

“I will take good care of my family; they deserve that,” Amirkhani said. “My mom, she always goes to get water from a small river (to grow vegetables). Now I can buy a pump so she can get free water from the river so she doesn’t have to work that much.”

With an impressive record of 12 wins in 14 fights and two UFC victories in less than two minutes combined, Amirkhani appears to have a bright future. When asked to name his goals for the future, though, Amirkhani said he feels no need to make requests.

“I have reached my goals and I have shown a lot of people there is time to work for your goals and your dreams and never give up,” Amirkhani said. “So my work in this life is done. Everything else is just bonus.”

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 69, check out the UFC Events section of the site.