Rafael Fiziev, Brad Riddell putting friendship aside for potential thriller at UFC on ESPN 31

LAS VEGAS – Rafael Fiziev and Brad Riddell won’t enter the cage with any animosity on Saturday night, but neither of the fast-rising lightweight contenders believes that means the fight is going to be any less entertaining.

In fact, Fiziev thinks the two might be even closer friends after their fistfight.

“He called me, and we talked with him, and we said yes together, and after I started to think, like, ‘Oh, this guy, I like him.,’” Fiziev told MMA Junkie at Wednesday’s media day at the UFC Apex. “We’re like friends, you know? We trained together, but how can we fight? Well, I talked with myself, you know, like, ‘Why not? I’m helping him to make money now, and he’s helping me.’

“We’re like friends, still. We just will go to the cage. We’ll hug. We’ll make money. We’ll make business because sometimes we can’t say no in this business, and after the cage, after the fight, we’re again friends – maybe more friends, because men, after a fight, are always more close.”

Fiziev (10-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) and Riddell (10-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) clash in the co-main event of Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 31 which airs on ESPN and streams on ESPN+ from the UFC Apex.

It’s a reunion of sorts for the two lightweights, who trained alongside each other at Thailand’s Tiger Muay Thai prior to either of them making it to the UFC. But it’s one that Riddell said wasn’t entirely unexpected, which made that pre-fight phone call a little easier to make.

“We knew we were going to fight each other eventually,” Riddell said. “Obviously, we both had the intention of getting to like, you know, the top five, so we thought that we’d bump into each other, maybe in the top five a bit later or something like that, but there wasn’t too much of an option other than to accept this fight. So, yeah, I mean, everybody knows now that I just gave him a call, and we had a talk and decided to fight. So, yeah – full steam ahead.”

While the contest isn’t one that’s going to immediately determine a title contender in the UFC’s lightweight division, it is one that will likely have an impact on the 155-pound rankings moving forward. Both fighters have been impressive thus far in the promotion’s famed octagon and look to be among a new generation of lightweight contenders ready to storm up the list.

“I definitely do see us as the, you know, the next generation,” Riddell said. “I’m not saying that we’re better or anything. I just think we’re next. You know, the guys in that top 10 ahead of us have been there a little bit. And then, you know, there’s the five behind them, guys like me, Arman (Tsarukyan), Damir (Ismagulov), Rafa, There’s some really dangerous people coming forward.”

But future rankings implications aren’t really why the fight looks so enticing on paper. The two high-level strikers each bring the capability of an all-out brawl, with both already earning multiple “Fight of the Night” honors in their careers.

That, as much as anything, is why Fiziev said he is happy to put the friendship on hold for 15 minutes or less.

“That’s why I like this fight,” Fiziev said. “That’s why I close my eyes like, ‘Oh, this is my friend and all this stuff.’ But that’s why – because everyone wants this interesting fight.

“We’re looking at the papers and the papers say, like, ‘Oh, this is good,’ and of course, we’ll try. I’ll try, for sure.”

To see the complete interview with Riddell, check out the video above. Fiziev’s interview is in the video below.