Cain Velasquez hitting Junior dos Santos (photo via David Becker / Associated Press)

By FCF Staff

UFC 166 will be an historic night, as the card will feature a rubber match between heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and former champ Junior dos Santos. It’s a match-up that many fans and pundits believed was inevitable, after Velasquez avenged his 2011 stoppage loss to “Cigano” last December, by working his way to a one sided, unanimous decision win at UFC 155.

The two heavyweights were recently asked by FOX Sports 1’s “UFC Tonight” program to break down their upcoming fight, and here is some of what they had to say (quotes via FOX Sports 1 press release).

UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez on what he’ll do differently this time against Junior Dos Santos: “I know what I want to do in the sport and I know how to do it. I just know that when it comes to fight night, I have to go out there and put on a show and perform well and win.”

Velasquez on what he’s prepared for in the third fight? “I’m expecting different stuff from him. Our game plan is the same, I have to do the same stuff I did in the last fight. I have to keep fighting forward and looking for takedowns. I’ve improved from the last fight. I looked at the last fight and I’ve worked on some things.”

Velasquez on if it bothered him that Dos Santos said he hit like a girl: “It doesn’t. With a loss people try to take something positive from it. That was all he could do. I didn’t finish the fight. But it doesn’t get under my skin.”

Velasquez on if he’ll look for a submission now that he has a black belt in jiu-jitsu: “I go into every fight thinking it’ll be a hard five rounds back and forth, never thinking knockout or submission. If it comes, then I’ll take it.”

Dos Santos on what will be different the third time. “I think we showed a little of ourselves in each fight. In the first fight, I knocked him out, which is something I did a lot before. The second fight showed how he fights. Now we’ve learned more about each other and it’ll be great for the fans.”

Dos Santos on if the loss to Velasquez affected him: “It affected me a lot. It was not good. Nobody likes to lose. I learned a lot. I’m smarter now and I have a lot more experience and I’m going to use that.”

Dos Santos on if he’ll use new tricks like the spinning wheel kick in this fight: “Yeah, expect something different this time. I never felt comfortable enough to use those against wrestlers. You have to use all our weapons to win a fight and I’m going to do that.”

The October 19th, UFC 166 card will be hosted by Houston’s Toyota Center.