Heavyweight veteran Greg Rebello is mostly happy with how his 2017 turned out. In his four bouts, Rebello was able to pick up three wins, making for a largely successful year.
“I had four fights, I went 3-1, and I feel I fought well,” Rebello told MMAWeekly.com. “At the (Dana White) Contenders show (in July) I came up short (versus Azuna Anyanwu). I made one mistake. Other than that, I was happy. I wish I would have won that fight, but it is what it is and you have to move forward.”
13 years into his MMA career, Rebello still feels like he is continuing to develop his game. In particular he feels like his stand-up had made the most progress recently.
“I still continue to grow and learn,” said Rebello. “If you don’t do that, you’ll be left in the dust. I never take time off. After a fight I get back in the gym and that’s when I pretty much grow, and learn, and add new tricks to my arsenal.
“The biggest thing was when I got a boxing coach. I always had a Muay Thai coach, but when I got a boxing coach and did straight boxing scoring and learned the basic from the ground up, I’ve gone 8-2 with seven knockouts. That was something I wish I had done earlier.”
On Friday in Lincoln, R.I., Rebello (23-8) takes on fellow veteran Travis Wiuff (75-21) in a heavyweight championship main event at CES 48.
“Obviously (Wiuff has) a huge name,” Rebello said. “He’s had probably about 15 and 20 fights between the UFC and Bellator, and he’s also fought in Pride, so he’s got big show experience. He’s got like 96 fights, which is crazy.
“My wrestling is on point and I’ve improved that a lot over the years, and I think that’s going to be the key to this fight. I’ve got to keep this fight on the feet, and if I keep it on the feet I’ll catch him with something, and it will be a good night for me.”
Being very familiar with Wiuff’s career, Rebello doesn’t expect to see anything different out his opponent than what he’s done in his previous near-100 fights.
“When you do have 96 fights, you’re not going to change something,” said Rebello. “He’s won them all basically same way: using his wrestling and ground ‘n’ pound style. I expect him to be the same guy. Maybe he can try something different to see if it works, but he’s going to be the same guy.”
Having been in the sport as long as he has, Rebello has learned to not put stock in anything other than what’s directly in front of him, and that’s how he’s going to approach his 2018.
“I always go one at a time,” Rebello said. “Guys get ahead of themselves too much, and it usually ends up bad. You never really know, so one step at a time, one fight at a time.”
