Mamed Khalidov

"Before the last bout he was saying in the interviews that he wants to stand with me and I was ready for it. It turned out that he doesn’t want to trade punches with me and decided to take me down. He made mistake and I capitalized on it. It’s doesn’t mean that the second fight will be alike, I think it might be much tougher, honestly. . . I have a feeling that it won’t be as fast as in November. He already knows what to expect. Without a doubt I’ll better prepared than the last time. Most importantly I’ll be mentally ready knowing that I’m 100%. In October I was after Ramadan, I was out of shape with only three weeks to train. It all happened so fast, weight cutting, short time to prepare. I was wondering myself if I would be able to win. This time it’s much better." - Khalidov on his rematch with Sengoku middleweight champion Jorge Santiago.