No scrubs? It's 'Yo scrubs!' for first-time UFC winner Darrius Flowers

If ever there was a time a fighter might be able to get away with a "Cut me a little slack, would ya?" comment, it might be with Darrius Flowers four fights into his UFC career.

Flowers earlier this month finally got off the schneid in the UFC after three straight losses to start his run in the promotion. Flowers (13-8-1 MMA, 1-3 UFC) put away Lando Vannata (12-8-2 MMA, 4-8-2 UFC) with a second-round TKO at UFC Fight Night 272.

It was another solid opponent in name recognition for Flowers. After he won his way into the UFC on DWCS with a knockout in 2022, he lost his promotional debut to Jake Matthews in a short-notice call-up. After losses to Michael Johnson and Evan Elder, Flowers almost certainly needed a win against Vannata to keep his job.

He'd have gotten at least a $25,000 finish bonus, too – had he made weight. But Flowers missed by a half-pound, which put an asterisk on an otherwise stellar performance.

But now that he's finally got that first UFC win, Flowers thinks he can invoke that aforementioned "Cut me a little slack" request.

"I want to fight scrubs next – the easiest fights, the next two fights," Flowers told MMA Junkie Radio. "I deserve to fight the easiest fights. I've been getting called up, short-notice, three days (at) elevation, five days' (notice at) elevation. I want to fight the scrubs.

"Whoever the fans say 'f*ck (they're no good)' the most, I want to fight them. I feel like I've been fighting Jake Matthews, Michael Johnson, Evan Elder – I've been fighting killers in horrible situations. I want to fight scrubs."

Flowers' debut call-up loss to Matthews came at UFC 291 in Salt Lake City. His fight against Elder was in Denver – the "Mile High City." The Johnson loss came in Vegas.

The 31-year-old said he'd gladly fight rematches to get back his losses, but before he even thinks about that, he wants to be 3-3 in the UFC. And that's why he made the scrubs request before heading down a road in which he'd ultimately call out Johnson or Elder to run things back.

"I'll fight anybody. I'd fight my brother if he was in the UFC. This is the fight game. I'm a fighter and I like fighting," Flowers said. "But I'm not necessarily looking to run those two back until I get a couple more dubs and even my record out. Then I'll start calling out guys. But you better believe I've got a list of guys. I even added probably five guys to the list today. But I'm not going to start screaming them out. I like to take a better approach, more strategic. And I don't feel like I deserve to call anybody out. I need to do more work."

But if pressed? Yeah, sure. Flowers will take the bait.

"Kyle Nelson – he's at the top of the list, not that he's No. 1. He's just on my list today," Flowers said. "I want to fight him because he f*cking just laid down to Terrance McKinney. He looks like he's done, so give me that guy."

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: