THERE may have been a few bumps along the way but Brad Scott still brought the thunder Down Under as he claimed his second victory in the UFC last weekend.

The Melksham mixed martial arts star, who has fought in the world’s biggest promotion since making the welterweight final of The Ultimate Fighter - The Smashes in 2012, returned to the octagon for the first time in 14 months on Saturday, claiming a second-round submission win over Dylan Andrews at UFC Fight Night 65 in Australia.

But it was a less than straightforward night’s work in Adelaide for middleweight Scott, 25, who was returning after his long lay-off due to shoulder surgery last summer.

He was knocked down twice in the opening round by his 35-year-old Kiwi opponent.

Then, when he caught Andrews with a punishing hook in the second round, the Wiltshire fighter broke a knuckle in his left hand.

But ‘the Bear’ battled on and when his opponent missed the target with a punch and left himself open, he locked Andrews into an inescapable guillotine choke, claiming victory as the New Zealander tapped out with six seconds of the round to go.

Despite how the fight seemed from outside of the cage, Scott insists that his triumph was easier than it looked.

“I had 14 months out and normally, I’d expect to have a bit of ring-rust and feel scared to let go but I felt great,” said the Wiltshire fighter, who began his MMA career at Melksham’s Dragonslair Gym.

“Even in the second round, I didn’t feel tired. I think that he was really tired because in the first round, it was his back and his head that was being pushed up against the cage in the clinch.

“I got home at 5.30am on Tuesday and I didn’t sleep until 6am on Wednesday. I’ve been on OxyContin (a painkiller) and my knuckle is broken.

“But you don’t notice those things when you’re fighting because it’s all adrenaline.

“To be honest, I didn’t realise that he’d knocked me down until the fight was over. I just got straight back up and the thing is that they were punches I didn’t see but they weren’t hard because if they were, I would have been knocked out cold.

“When that happened, I just did what I’d done 100 times or 1000 times in training – that’s why we do all that horrible training.

“I was the underdog and I wasn’t expected to win. The other guy had been in 25 fights.

“People are saying it’s my biggest win but I think my first one in the UFC was (against Michael Kuiper in 2013) because that was against a UFC opponent and it showed that the gap from the Ultimate Fighter wasn’t that big.”