—You must be feeling quite nervous going into this fight?
I haven’t met my opponent yet, so I don’t have any real feelings at the moment.

—You have been training in Okinawa. How was that?
The training was very intense and I lost about 10kgs so I think I should be able to move quite well. I am very confident. I think I’ll weigh in at about 105 or 106kgs.

—Can you give us your thoughts on training with Peter Aerts and Rudimar Fedrigo?
Peter is one of the strongest fighters around. It doesn’t matter how you attack, he just keeps coming at you. I trained to fight like him and the best piece of advice he gave me was to just keep going forward. Rudimar Fedrigo and I trained in MMA. MMA style striking, my ground game, wrestling, basically the whole deal. He taught me how an MMA fight should be, and that really excites me.

—Do you have an image of you and Fedor facing off?
I certainly do. I’m not afraid at all. I don’t fight to lose, I am going there to win.

—What are you family’s thoughts on this?
Nothing.

—Do you want this fight be a stand up style fight?
Yeah, that would be the most ideal situation. I think I can hang with almost anyone when it comes to grappling, but I think I might avoid that this time around!

—Do you have any kind of secret plan for this fight?
No, not really. I think if I can connect on my punches, I can knock him down. I believe I can do that, so I don’t see too many problems.