• UFC Fight Night 24

Fight of Decade has 80% chance of repeat

ESPN staff
March 25, 2011
Leonard Garcia is ready to throw caution to the wind © Getty Images
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Leonard Garcia has confessed tactics will go out the window at UFC Fight Night 24, because only a small part of him wants to make his rematch with Chan Sung Jung a technical one.

Garcia and the Korean Zombie produced the Fight of the Year when their three-round WEC war went the distance in 2010, and certain experts were even labelling it the Fight of the Decade.

Highly-rated MMA coach Greg Jackson mentors Garcia and is known for his attention to tactics, but Garcia admits the huge likelihood is he will simply start swinging once again.

"Eighty per cent of me wants to go out and pick up where we left off," Garcia told ESPN. "The other 20 per cent wants to show people how I've evolved. This fight is like one of those where the stars align and it's time for us to go again.

"I'd love to have something you had with Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti in boxing, where the rematch is better than the first."

Garcia had been set to face Nam Phan before injury forced the fight to be pulled, and he admits there was only one reaction when the UFC said his replacement opponent was the Zombie.

"My manager called and said Nam Phan is injured, but there's someone else willing to fight you - the Korean Zombie. I just started laughing. When you have a fight with someone like we did, you're always thinking in the back of your mind, 'I wonder what would happen if we did it again.'"

For more build-up to UFC Fight Night 24, go Five Rounds with ESPN.com

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