TORONTO – Hakeem Dawodu heard some of the talk from Kyle Bochniak before their fight, and he’s not above saying it got to him a bit.

Dawodu (9-1-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC) heard Bochniak (8-4 MMA, 2-4 UFC) made a comment that he wasn’t “battled tested” compared to him, and that would be the difference in their featherweight fight at UFC 231 on Saturday night. But in the end, it was Dawodu who walked away with his hand raised.

Dawodu took a split decision on the UFC 231 main card at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. The main card aired on pay-per-view following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.

“Yeah, it did bother me. ‘Battle tested’ – who was the one running tonight?” Dawodu said after his win. “He said I wasn’t battled tested. In my overall fights in my whole career, including kickboxing and muay Thai, this was my 67th fight tonight. I’m a lot more battled-tested than him, and I proved it tonight.

“I wasn’t going to back up tonight. I wasn’t going to run. He’s tough, but I’m tougher. He’s gritty, I’m more gritty. I proved that tonight – toughness isn’t enough.”

Dawodu’s win was a split, decision though – which also left a little bit of a bitter taste in his mouth. But he said a case of the sniffles earlier in fight week might have played a factor.

“I feel like it wasn’t a split – I thought it was unanimous,” Dawodu told MMAjunkie. “I didn’t feel like he landed anything on me besides those two takedowns. I wanted to go for the finish, but this whole week I’ve been kind of fighting a cold. Usually in the third round, I can really push – I’ve got good cardio. But I felt a little bit of a burn in my lungs, so I felt more tired than usual. But at the same time, I shouldn’t have left it in the hands of the judges. I could’ve pushed a little harder and gotten the finish.

“I was trying to push harder, but he fought a bit differently than I thought he was going to fight. He was actually running back a lot. He wasn’t engaging. I thought we were going to have a war, so I was prepared for that. But I think once he felt my power, he knew the best thing to do was play the cat-and-mouse game and try to get his points in rather than standing in front of me.”

But a win is a win at the UFC level, and Dawodu now has two in a row. The momentum from being on the main card of a big pay-per-view may pay off for him.

“It meant a lot to me – I didn’t think I was going to be on a main card on pay-per-view this early (in my career),” Dawodu said. “… I feel like I got a lot of exposure and a lot of fans are going to see me.”

Check out Dawodu’s full post-fight interview in the video above.

And for complete coverage of UFC 231, check out the UFC Events section of the site.