Las Vegas, NV — Poland’s Mateusz Rebecki knew he had to make adjustments in his fight with Nick Fiore at UFC Vegas 67, after finding himself unable to put his opponent away in the opening round.
“Right now I feel a little bit tired because I get a really tough fight today. My opponent, I didn’t expect how tough he is, and I tried to smash him in the first round. Unfortunately he’s too tough, and I didn’t get him out,” Rebecki (17-1) told media outlets including Cageside Press following the lightweight bout at the UFC Apex. That led to a change in tactics after the opening frame, he explained. “In the second, I tried more takedowns and control in the guard. Because I was a little bit tired after trying [to] knock him out.”
Asked what was going through his mind at the time, Rebecki said that “I keep focus. I have only one direction. I have experience, I have 16, 17, right now 18 fights, and I feel comfortable. But I must change tactics. In the octagon I’m thinking, I’m changing when something’s going wrong. This fight, the first round [went] not like I wanted, and I must change something.”
His left low kick was part of the game plan, Rebecki noted. “I want to be a fighter who does everything, like kicking, punching, takedowns, takedown defense. I like doing everything the opponent gives me. I tried a flying knee, elbow, everything. Today I did something, but not really good because I didn’t knock him out.”
As for what comes next, and how many times he wants to fight this year, Rebecki couldn’t say, exactly. That’s because he’s looking to return to featherweight, which needs more lead time than a lightweight fight.
“Maybe two fights would be good for me. Right now, one month rest, maybe three months to prepare for [the] next fight. I’m not sure, it’s hard right now to tell you. But maybe three fights,” Rebecki stated. “It’s one problem, because I’m thinking about 145, and when I prepare for this [weight class], I need more time to prepare for the fight. More time for my camp, and time to show what we can do.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 67 post-fight media appearance by Mateusz Rebecki above.
