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"I'm not the guy to come here and give a prediction on who's gonna win the fight. Do I think I'm gonna win? Yes, I think I'm gonna win. If I didn't think I was gonna win, I wouldn't have taken the fight. But if you take him and me on a piece of paper, nine times out of 10, I'm supposed to win the fight.
"It doesn't surprise me Renzo's saying that he's gonna pay me back for what I did to Royce. They're a tight family, and I beat Royce, and he's wanting to get a little payback. If he thinks I'm gonna go out there and roll over because I beat his cousin and he's gonna have an easy victory, then he's got a lot to think of before the fight. That's just not the way it's gonna happen.
"Of course, me being the wrestler and being the ground-and-pound, I wanna be on top of him. I wanna be able to have that leverage to throw those big punches and have those big hits. It's gonna be interesting, it really is. I'm more of the 'strength will overcome technique,' and Renzo is 'technique will overcome strength.'" - Matt Hughes
Matt Hughes and Renzo Gracie are not letting the two title fights overshadow their bout. Tonight, we will see if a wrestler can defeat a jiu-jitsu specialist.
Four years ago, Hughes scored a TKO win over Renzo's cousin, Royce Gracie, and now Renzo is looking for revenge.
While there is a definite rivalry between the two, they both acted cordial to each other during the UFC 112 weigh-ins in Abu Dhabi. The two fighters shook hands before the stare down, and shared a quick hug after it.
Their professional MMA records could not be more different. Hughes has 50 fights under his belt - 43-7 - which means that he has won 86% of his fights. On the other hand, Gracie has 21 fights - 13-6-1, 1 NC - showing a 62% winning ratio.
However, even with 50 professional fights, Hughes has only fought four time since losing the welterweight belt at the end of 2006 - a win over Chris Lytle and a loss to Georges St. Pierre in 2007, followed by loss to Thiago Alves in 2008, and a win over Matt Serra last May. Hughes' ring rust is 11 months old. But Gracie has not stepped into a ring since February 2007 when he earned a win over Frank Shamrock after Shamrock was disqualified.
Today's UFC 112 will sort out their differences. Will Gracie walk away with a submission win, or will Hughes out-wrestle and ground-and-pound his way to victory?
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