Rising UFC star Jordan Leavitt has explained why he was embarrassed to be a professional fighter prior to his UFC Vegas 16 victory.

Leavitt, who pulled off an impressive submission win over Luke Flores on Dana White’s Contender Series earlier this year, sent a real message to the rest of his division after knocking Matt Wiman out with a devastating slam just 20 seconds into their clash at the start of December.

Now, during a recent appearance on MMA Fighting’s What The Heck, Leavitt has made it clear that he has only recently felt proud to be a professional fighter.

“Mission accomplished,” Leavitt stated (via MMA Fighting). “[It feels] a little weird. There’s a lot of people that doubt you when you do things that are different and risky—people you love who are worried about you, and people you hate that will just talk down to anything you do.

“I’ve gotten a lot of negative feedback this entire time and I don’t hear them now. They’re just echos that are fading more and more in the distance because they were wrong. I got to prove them wrong and I’ll get to see them and they’ll be like, ‘Oh, congrats man. I’m really happy for you,’ and I’ll be like, ‘Yeah, sure man.’

“I’m happy to not be embarrassed anymore. I’m happy to know I wasn’t diluted, or silly, or someone who was just chasing a dream with no real basis to be chasing it. It’s a nice place to be in.”

With his win over Matt Wiman, Jordan Leavitt improved to a perfect 8-0 as a professional mixed martial artist. While he doesn’t currently have a fight booked, most fans expect him to get a notable step up in competition in his next bout.

Who do you want to see him matched up with next?