FH: He's certainly more experienced than you. This is going to be his 50th pro fight, whereas your record is 16-5.
MS: That doesn't matter to me at all. If you look at the quality of the fights that we've fought, we've fought similar guys. We've both fought BJ Penn, we've both fought Georges St. Pierre. If you look at who we've fought, maybe he's got me on quantity, but a lot of his wins are in Midwest shows against guys who were never heard from again. If you look at quality, I've fought just as tough guys as him. I've never fought an easy fight. You never get one in the UFC. I don't think its experience, I think it comes down to skill. I think that's going to be a big difference. He's fought so long being the bully - being the bigger, stronger guy - that even though he's probably stronger than me, and he's bigger, it comes down to technique, and I've got a definite edge in technique on him.

FH: Overall, were you happy with your Ultimate Fighter experiences?
MS: You know, it's so funny. When I went on the reality show, my season was a comeback show and the winner was getting a title shot, and that's why I went on, because what they were offering was phenomenal. And I looked at it as, I have the Serra Jiu Jitsu martial arts schools. The exposure of being on that show would be great. I didn't put much pressure on myself, I just thought if I did well that'd be great, and worst-case scenario, I get exposure. And then I ended up winning the whole thing and shocking a lot of people in my title fight by winning that. Being on Spike TV was nothing but a blessing. It changed my life financially, gave me great exposure and led to the title. That show gave me a shot and I seized that opportunity. And then coaching was great too, because I got to bring Ray Longo, my coach back here in Long Island, I brought Pete Sell, and it was great. Even though Mac Danzig ended up winning the whole thing and he was on Team Hughes, I feel like I destroyed Matt Hughes. My guys won six of eight fights against his. It was a lot of fun, on both seasons.

In addition to the epic showdown between Serra and Hughes, UFC 98 will feature the light heavyweight title fight between current champ Rashad Evans, and undefeated challenger Lyoto Machida.

For the rest of the interview with Matt Serra, click here.