Mateusz Gamrot suffered a tough first round submission loss to Quillan Salkilld at UFC Fight Night 284 on Saturday night and has now issued a statement giving his first reaction to it.

“I have lost. But that failure doesn’t end my story,” Gamrot wrote on Instagram. “For many years I have been following this path that taught me sports, just like life, we don’t always get what we work hard for. Sometimes instead of winning, we learn the lesson. Sometimes, instead of a raised hand, there is silence that forces us to look deeper into ourselves.

“I’ve already been to the peak. I have been down too. I win, I lose, I fall, and I come back And that’s why I know my road doesn’t end yet. You can defeat me in one evening, but you can’t take away my faith, character and will to fight. I believe there are still great times ahead of me. Next chapters that I haven’t written yet. Because a man is not defined by failure. He’s defined by what he’ll do after he loses. You can stay down or you can get up. I will rise up! With my head held high With confidence in yourself. Grateful for the road I’ve come, and hungry for what’s ahead. Because as long as you go the story goes on.

“And for real Thank you to all the real fans for the support and love shown, together until the end.”

The relatively swift and comprehensive nature of the 35-year-old Gamrot’s defeat to Salkilld was surprising as he’s always been a fighter that’s hard to beat, having only lost one fight inside the distance in his 25-5 (+1nc) career prior to this past weekend.

Along the way Gamrot has beaten a number of highly regarded lightweight talents, including the likes of Arman Tsarukyan, Rafael dos Anjos and Rafael Fiziev, so it says a lot about rising star Quillan Salkilld that he was able to win so convincingly.