Saturday afternoon in Belfast, Ireland, #5 ranked UFC middleweight Gegard Mousasi will step into the Octagon against #10 ranked Uriah Hall in a highly anticipated rematch that will see Mousasi given the chance to avenge his highlight reel KO loss to Hall which took place last year.

Ahead of the fight, Mousasi has admitted that he knows he is taking a risk by accepting the fight given that he is not only ranked higher than Hall, but is also on a 3-fight winning streak, whereas Hall is on a 2-fight losing streak:

I’ve got nothing to gain, it’s a risky fight for me actually because I’m fighting Uriah Hall,” Mousasi said. “I could go fight somebody in the top four and go fight for the title right away. So I’m going to take two fights to get to a title shot instead of one guy to get to a title shot. It’s more taking an extra risk just to get even.

“I have to put this right and make everyone know that I’m coming for the title. I’m almost there.”

While Mousasi is certainly on an impressive win streak, Yoel Romero has been given the next middleweight title shot against Michael Bisping following his frightening KO win over Chris Weidman on the main card of UFC 205 earlier this month.

Bisping was in attendance at UFC 205, and saw the knockout live before having a bit of a brief back & forth with Romero from afar during Romero’s Octagon interview, during which Bisping gave the #1 contender the finger.

Mousasi spoke to BloodyElbow to discuss Bisping, as well as the impending Bisping-Romero fight:

“Well, he can say whatever he wants, but when the UFC wants to make that fight, it’s gonna happen. I don’t know…to be honest, they’ve always protected Michael Bisping a little bit because he’s from the UK and they need him for that market.”

In regards to when the fight between Bisping and Romero would take place, Bisping is currently rehabbing a knee injury which he sustained in his UFC 204 title defense against Dan Henderson back in August.

Tune in to UFC Fight Pass later today to see whether or not Mousasi will be able to avenge his previous loss to Hall.