HUMILITY is the ingredient that allows a UFC fighter to break another man’s arm and then be praised by the victim for his decency.

Paul Craig knows this much. The 33 year-old continued his ascent through the light-heavyweight rankings with a recent first-round stoppage of Jamahal Hill, the previously undefeated American.

A week that began drenched in acrimony and angry words extended into the ring at UFC 263 where Craig dislocated Hill’s elbow with an armbar.

Remarkably, that was not the end of the bout with Hill bravely soldiering on – arm dangling helplessly by his side like a piñata – before the referee decided he had taken enough punishment and stopped the bout.

In that second, foes became friends. Craig, part of the Coatbridge-based Hit Squad, had been the better man in the ring but there was no lingering bitterness.

Jamahal and his family joined the Scot’s celebrations, dancing until dawn in an Arizona nightclub. The American later praised Craig’s integrity as all the bitterness and spite that had preceded their fight quickly washed away.

“You and your opponent always start off as enemies once you sign a contract to agree to a fight,” explained the man known as Bearjew.

“But once you’ve worked out who was the better fighter on that particular day, it’s put to bed for me. We’ve worked out who’s the best and we’ll both now progress on our careers on different paths. So what’s the point in holding a grudge for the rest of our lives? There’s no need.

“One of the things about being Scottish is our hospitality. So once the fight was over it was just a case of, ‘let’s have a beer and a talk’.

“We were partying, having dance-offs and I met his father, his two brothers and his partner. He’s got an amazing family and he’s an amazing person.

“You often find that with a lot of fighters. After a fight you learn that they’re genuinely nice people. MMA is a humbling sport as one minute you can be top of the world winning belts and getting all the accolades, and within a breath you could be experiencing the polar opposite where you’re losing and taking hate from fans and other fighters.

“Getting punched in the face definitely brings a certain type of person to MMA. You need to be humble.”

The victory celebrations were supplemented with a moment of poignancy when Craig’s coach Brian Gallacher presented him with a newly-earned black belt in jiu-jitsu.

“Other martial arts like judo, karate or taekwondo are all based on a pattern and how well you can learn it,” he explained. “Jiu-jitsu is not like that. It’s all based on your own ability to make someone say they’ve had enough.

“For 10 years I’ve been grinding in the sport and been training so hard, always trying to learn and improve. I enjoy boxing and wrestling but my love is jiu-jitsu which for me is the purest form of combat sports. So to get that black belt from my mentor, Brian, was a special moment.”

Craig remains relatively unknown within the UK but among American fans and celebrity MMA obsessives is developing a growing fanbase.

Ben Johnston from the band Biffy Clyro and Blake Harrison from The Inbetweeners Movie have both become friends over the years.

“When Ben from Biffy messaged me…I’d been a fan of them since I was about 13 years old. And now I’m having chats with him and him saying how proud he is of me. That’s a lovely feeling to have.

“Same with Blake from The Inbetweeners. He’s an MMA fan and got in touch and now we’ve started a dialogue. There’s a good chance I’ll meet up with him for a beer at some point and I love that this sport can do that.

“When I’m in America I have people constantly getting recognised and folk coming up and asking for pictures. But back home I’m just another guy.”

That sense of normality quickly resumed upon his return to the family just three days after the high of winning in Arizona.

“It’s a massive crash back to earth afterwards. You have that week before a fight where there’s lots of emotions. Then it comes to the fight and it’s win, lose or draw. And then after that it’s back to reality, back to doing the school run, making dinners, playing with Lego and on the computer – just being that guy again.

“You feel like a superstar after you win and then three days later it’s just back to reality. I had to quarantine which wasn’t too bad. There were worse places to be. It would have been a lot harder if I’d been stuck in a hotel. So I can’t complain about being in my own home with my family around me.”