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When the UFC Fight Night 34 post-fight press conference began, UFC vice president and managing director of Asia operations Mark Fisher announced that main event fighters Tarec Saffiedine and Hyun Gyu Lim were not going to make it to the dais.
As the press conference wound to a close, Lim made his way to the stage with the assistance of his cornermen. A round of applause greeted Lim as Fisher introduced the fighter with the words, "Now this guy is a warrior, this guy has the heart of a lion."
Lim was unable to put any weight on his left leg after it had been assaulted by the kicks of Saffiedine for five rounds. Once Lim was settled in his seat next to Submission of the Night winner Max Holloway, Lim grabbed an ice pack and held it to his badly swollen left eye.
One of the first questions that Lim was asked was if there had been any discussion of his corner ending the fight early considering the amount of damage he had sustained from Saffiedine's onslaught, "At the end of the fourth round, there was some conversation to that effect," replied the Fight of the Night bonus winner.
That conversation was seemingly very brief considering Lim answered the bell for the fifth and final round. As the clock wound down, Lin, essentially fighting on one leg, launched an attack that had Saffiedine badly hurt. That last-ditch effort was unable to secure the victory for Lin, but it surely secured him a number of new fans.
Lim said of his performance in the main event of the UFC's first card of 2014, "For me to be featured in a main event, I really want to put out my best performance ever and that was the only goal that I had, and I feel that I accomplished that goal."
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