BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Joe Lauzon’s night in the octagon looked pretty horrific for those of us watching from the outside and, as it turns out, it didn’t look much prettier from inside that octagon either.

Chris Gruetzemacher, who came off a two-fight skid into his UFC 223 main card bout on Saturday, battered and bloodied fellow UFC lightweight Lauzon en route to a rare – and, in this case, commendable – corner stoppage. It was certainly a huge moment for Gruetzemacher, who not only picked a solid time to snag his career’s most significant win, but earned a $50,000 bonus for his efforts.

But here’s the thing about MMA: On the other end of an enthralling “Performance of the Night” effort, there is usually someone having the exact opposite of a good night. And Saturday’s lightweight matchup gave us a quite disturbing example of that in Lauzon.

For Gruetzemacher (14-3 MMA, 2-2 UFC), it quickly became clear that Lauzon (27-15 MMA, 14-12 UFC) was in for a rough ride.

“After the first (round), I sort of felt like I broke him,” Gruetzemacher told reporters after the pay-per-view affair. “I thought he was going to come into the second, and he came hard the second. I thought he paced himself a little bit. At some point, he flurried at me. And I think I slipped and moved and caught a bunch of that and returned back and made him sad.

“I had a feeling him sitting down there, it might have gotten stopped. Because I got done looking at him and he just looked really demoralized. I was looking at his face, (it) was pretty beat up. He was starting to bleed a lot. I had a feeling, man. Actually, going back into my corner, going into the third, I had a feeling he might not come back out.”

Thankfully for Gruetzemacher – and, really, all parties involved – that did turn out to be the case. Which meant, after back-to-back submission losses to Chas Skelly and Davi Ramos, that Gruetzemacher could finally celebrate an octagon win for the first time since 2015.

As Lauzon was relieved from his in-cage punishment by his corner, Gruetzemacher could breathe after some trying times outside of it.

“It was a relief that I won,” Gruetzemacher said. “The last two losses… The Chas Skelly fight was heartbreaking for me. I had a lot of personal things going on my life. A lot of things were new and I kind of walked into that fight, new team, new this, new that. And it was all different. And then to just kind of fall flat on my face and have nobody in my corner that was necessarily familiar.

“The next fight, I went out and performed. And, again, fell flat on my face. But performed, but I still came up short. We all need money, we all make a living. But, all that aside, this is my passion. To go out there, and this is what I put all my time an effort into, and not come out victorious? I can’t say I didn’t stay up late at night. I can’t say I didn’t lose sleep at times. This is something I needed for my soul, man. Straight up, I needed a win for my soul.”

Sure, winless skids aren’t easy for anyone who makes a living out of prizefighting. But, for Gruetzemacher, the blow of having sacrificed so much of his life, from money to personal needs, and not having the results to show for it nearly led him to giving up.

“Absolutely, I wanted to quit,” Gruetzemacher said. “There were times I thought, ‘Man, this is not paying out.’ I had a great team at one time, they built me up, I ha a bunch of skills, I was working, I was doing all this stuff. And I thought making it to ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’ I was like, ‘Finally, man, this is about to turn around for me.’

“And then – not to tell too much or tell a bad story, because this is a good night – but I kind of got booted from where I was at. So I kind of ventured on my own. I went from having a team, to not having anything. From having a family, to just being me.”

Thankfully, though, Gruetzemacher was able to have some good people helping him along. And while things were better, but not yet fully in place for his last outing, it seems they finally came together at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Saturday.

“To have this win tonight, man, you have no idea,” Gruetzemacher said. “I’ll probably go home and sit alone for a little while and just be by myself. Because I don’t even think I’ve taken it all in, to be honest.”

To hear more from Gruetzemacher, check out the video above.

And for complete coverage of UFC 223, check out the UFC Events section of the site.