Rising Kiwi lightweight Brad Riddell admits there'll be an oddly personal edge to his bout against "mate" Rafael Fiziev in the co-main event at the UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas on Sunday (NZ time).
Riddell and Fiziev got to know each other well during their time at the famed Tiger Muay Thai gym in Thailand, where both fighters spent years sparring and fine-tuning their crafts as kickboxers before being seduced by the allure of MMA.
"It's not a normal sport is it? It's not like you're playing your mates at rugby or something like that. You're intentionally trying to hurt them," Riddell tells Newshub.
Although Riddell's hand was somewhat forced, both have been around the fight game long enough to realise occasions such as these are part and parcel of the sport.
Separated by just two places in the UFC's official divisional rankings, Riddell knew it was inevitable he'd eventually have to lock horns with his Krygyz cohort.
And given the opportunity to accept the bout or bide his time for a chance to fight a higher-ranked fighter, the decision didn't require much pondering for the itchy-fisted Riddell.
A quick courtesy call to Fiziev was well received and the ink on the fight contract was soon dry.
"I think it's important to do that," he says. "As a man, especially in the sport, there's a lot of backstabbing, a lot of sh*t talking and stuff like that, and it's not really my style.
"This is just the way it ended up. We did it very cordially and we're still mates but we're just going to go in there and try and win, have a feed afterwards and come home, I guess."
Regardless of who has their hand raised on Sunday, fight fans across the planet will likely be the real winners in this contest, where the likelihood of high-paced, highly technical combat is essentially guaranteed.
Since his UFC debut in 2019, the undefeated Riddell has reeled off four straight wins in a manner which has quickly earned himself must-see TV status, becoming a cult hero for connoisseurs of finely curated violence.
His most recent win over Drew Dober back in June stole the show from headliner and City Kickboxing teammate Israel Adesanya's at UFC 263, earning his second 'Fight of the Night' performance bonus.
As far as an ideal Octagon foil for Riddell, they don't come much better than Fiziev, who has also established a well deserved reputation for elite entertainment through his five UFC bouts to date.
The 28 year-old is riding his own four-fight Octagon win streak, with his last three outings earning post-fight bonuses.
"I like to do my talking with my hands, Rafael likes to do his talking with his hands," Riddell notes.
"He does some funny stuff in the cage like he likes to talk in the cage, but that's just the way he is - he's not talking shit, he just really enjoys the sport."
A veteran of over 100 kickboxing and Muay Thai bouts, Riddell confesses - although it's been a long and gradual process - he's beginning to feel like a cage is where he truly belongs.
That said, Riddell insists he still has a long way to go to feel as at ease as he did in a ring.
"I haven't had a lot of MMA fights in comparison to my kickboxing career but I still am getting more and more comfortable in the cage," says Riddell.
"I definitely wouldn't compare my level of comfort of kickboxing to MMA.
"Kickboxing, I felt like my feet were magnetised to that room like I was supposed to be in there. MMA, I'm still getting there. So I think the best is yet to come."
Under the expert tutelage of City Kickboxing wrestling coaches Andrei Paulet and George Hickman, Riddell has evolved into the kind of well-rounded 'total' fighter typical of the renowned Auckland's gym conveyor belt of class, displaying a level of wrestling acumen that's allowed to him to unleash his deep arsenal of eight-point striking without fear of reprisal on the mat.
While he's used his grappling to turn the tide in his last two contests, it's unlikely he'll need to employ any of it against Fiziev, who is the closest he's come to finding a striking equal in his fledgling UFC career to date.
"The weekend's really going to bring a lot of that out - just with the nerves and the tension and stuff like that and the calibre of the guy that I'm put in front of. I'm very aware of how good he is and how skilled he is."
Having reached the head-nod-at-the-supermarket degree of fame at home, victory on Sunday would likely propel the 12th-ranked Riddell into the cut-throat lightweight division's top 10 and unlock a whole new tier of mouthwatering matchups, with ever-increasing title ramifications.
Despite having his hand raised against Dober in June, that fight camp was marred by the loss of Riddell's close friend and teammate Fau Vake, who was in hospital in a coma, after an alleged unprovoked attack in Auckland city. He passed away a week after the incident.
Alternating between training sessions and Vake's hospital bedside vigil took an undeniable emotional toll on the "overwhelmed" Riddell, which took him until the second round of that fight to truly put aside.
With the benefit of time, those scars have healed and Riddell insists his preparation this time around has been clinical.
"I've grieved and come to terms with Fau's leaving now," he says.
"The last fight was quite consuming. We're just training, going to the hospital… it was very overwhelming.
"I was just eating whatever when I was hungry and it disrupted a lot of my camp. Then when I got into the fight, it was in my mind and I managed to shake it out for a bit and get to work a bit later than I intended to
"But now I've got a clean slate in my head so I'm very focused on what I have to do on the weekend."
