Former top ranked UFC middleweight Rousimar Palhares has earned quite a bad reputation in the MMA industry over the last few years. Palhares was suspended for 90 days, and even kicked out of the UFC and the WSOF for refusing to let go of submissions after his opponents tapped.

With that being said, Palhares was winning his fights in incredibly dominant fashion, and looking nearly unbeatable. At Venator FC 3 however, 27-year-old Emil Meek managed to end the reign of Palhares, and capture the Venator welterweight championship by knocking out Palhares in just 45 seconds.

Interestingly enough, he revealed on The MMA Hour that the UFC quickly reached out to him to congratulate him on defeating Palhares.

“Joe Silva sent me an email, and they congratulated me on the win,” said Meek in a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour (transcribed by MMA Fighting). “I haven’t wrote them back yet, I haven’t had the time. I can’t just reply, ‘Hey, nice. Thank you. Can I fight now?’ I have to make something beautiful and nice, but I have a sheet or a draft that I’ll send them right after we do this [the interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour].”

“You know, the fun thing about fighting Palhares is that everybody wanted me to win,” added Meek. “I don’t think that everybody thought I would win… The thing [is] that everybody was rooting for me, and I really appreciate that… So, yeah, I really wanted to beat him, and I believe in my heart that I could do it. I would never ask for a fight if I wouldn’t believe that I would actually have a chance to win.”