LAS VEGAS – If Alexander Hernandez had any octagon jitters for his short-notice UFC debut, he did an amazing job of hiding it after the fact.

He picked the weekend of the Academy Awards to give an Oscar-worthy acting performance if that was the case. But it seems Hernandez had no real nerves, and said his 42-second knockuot of Beneil Dariush went just the way he and his team drew it up at UFC 222.

“It’s exactly what we planned, it’s exactly what we saw, and we conquered,” Hernandez said after the fight. “None of this was overwhelming. None of this seemed out of place. None of this seemed undeserved. The goal was never to enter the UFC, to win a fight in the UFC – the goal since Day One has been to own this organization. And that’s exactly what we’re on our way to do.

“… It feels like a huge accomplishment. It feels beautiful. … But this just feels like a piece of that process to the top.”

Hernandez (9-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) was a replacement for Bobby Green against Dariush (14-4-1 MMA, 8-4-1 UFC) less than three weeks before UFC 222, which took place Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card aired on pay-per-view following prelims on FS1, including Hernandez’s win over Dariush, and UFC Fight Pass.

And as is typical with short-notice replacements making their UFC debuts, he was a sizable underdog in the fight. Dariush was a -450 favorite against Hernandez, a Texan who had fought for LFA and RFA, among other regional promotions.

But that all went out the window in a hurry. Hernandez took Dariush out of his game immediately with a push kick instead of touching gloves, and about 40 seconds later the fight was over without Hernandez really so much as breaking a sweat. The knockout got Hernandez a $50,000 bonus for “Performance of the Night,” which probably will come in handy given he only recently quit his job as a loan officer to puruse fighting full time without distractions.

He continued to give credit to his fight team, Ohana Academy in San Antonio, for having him ready despite the short notice. And the 25-year-old may have become the first fighter in history to reference “Bill Nye the Science Guy.”

“I never thought twice about this opportunity,” he said. “I jumped on it and I was ready for it. The weight was right, cardio was right, and we’re always training to be at this level.

“Bill Nye couldn’t scientifically put together a better process than we have calculated on our team. It is down to a decimal point of how we cut weight, and that’s something you have to pay for to learn. We do very well. I’m always healthy, always on point, so losing that last bit of weight wasn’t terrible.”

Hernandez may want a full fight camp for his sophomore UFC outing, but he could turn around quickly for it if he had to, given he only was in there for 42 seconds with Dariush and came out unscathed.

He knows one thing: He set out to make a quick first impression, and he did.

“I think it was a great statement,” Hernandez said. “I think the showcase of a short-notice fight against someone who was top 10, top 15, wherever he’s at in an opening fight, and knock him out in under a minute, I think that’s an excellent statement.”

For complete coverage of UFC 222, check out the UFC Events section of the site.