The UFC Blog

Just got back from the press conference for UFC 98 in just two days. It wasn’t that eventful…no one said anything too aggressive or new, but here’s a few highlights.

Matt Serra and Matt Hughes

–"Hughes and his trainer have said that when I look across the cage at him on Saturday night that I’m going to think to myself ‘what did I get myself into’. Believe me, come Saturday night there is no where I’d rather be". Serra
–Serra isn’t thinking past the fight and doesn’t know if the two will be any different once it is over. Hughes concurs. "Once the fight is over we won’t really have any reason to talk about each other. We come from two different areas and that has a lot to do with it."
–Hughes did say that the experience of getting ready for Serra is similar to when he got ready to beat Frank Trigg twice. They are the only two fighters he has really had bad blood with and said that it gave him extra motivation to get up early and train very hard for the fight. he mentioned that he has been in the game for so long that sometimes you get comfortable and the bad feelings with Serra gave him that extra drive for this one.  
–Both fighters said that they will stop fighting when it isn’t fun any more or they are doing it for the wrong reasons. Hughes said he loves to compete and still feels that way.

Rashad Evans and Lyoto Machida

–In the opening comments, Dana White said that since they have started to keep stats on the fighters, that Machida is the least hit fighter in MMA history. He said that Machida gets hit about once every round and a half.
–Machida said that he is definitely going to try to finish the fight while Rashad said he is definitely going to win the fight.
–I had a chance to speak to Rashad for a while after the formal part of the presser was over. I asked him if he was let down when the fight with Rampage was called off and Lyoto was subbed in since there had been so much heat between him and Rampage after the Jardine fight. He said that he wasn’t because Lyoto really deserves the fight. "I want the toughest fights to test myself, so it’s cool."
–Rashad’s trainer, Greg Jackson and I spoke for a while as well. He said that Lyoto is a challenge to prepare for and is very hard to take down. There seems to be a lot of mutual respect in this fight all around. Pro MMA Radio listeners will remember that Lyoto’s manager, Ed Soares, was a guest on the show on Monday and was very complimentary of Rashad as well. Check out the archive if you haven’t heard it yet.

Overall Impressions

The Rashad/Lyoto main event has the makings of an amazing fight, or could be a bit on the sleepy side given they both like to counter-fight. With this being the first time in UFC history that two undefeated fighters have met for a title, there should be more buzz for the event. The mutual respect between them and the fact that Lyoto doesn’t speak fluent English definitely don’t help. But, the bad blood between Hughes and Serra, definitely for real, has done a lot to get fans amped for the event. I’m sure tonight’s Countdown show will go along way toward boosting PPV sales as well.

Pro MMA Radio

Make sure to keep a close watch on the show these coming weeks. Rashad Evans, Greg Jackson, photographer Tracey Lee are all coming on and we may get Lyoto Machida before he goes back to Brazil.

Special thanks to everyone at the UFC, particularly Jen Wenk, Rachel Trontel and Diann Brizzolara for all their help.

And keep checking back here on the Bodybuilding.com UFC blog…more to follow!