Before that, he must pass the considerable challenge posed by Nurmagomedov.
The 27-year-old, younger brother of UFC fighter Umar and cousin of former UFC lightweight champion Khabib, said he “underestimated” Hughes in their first fight, but is not planning on making the same mistake again.
“Everything is different this time. I can’t imagine how I can lose this fight, ” said the defending champion.
“In the first fight I had a bad camp. This is a different Usman from January, so he will have to be ready.
“I know he will be different too. I watched this (first) fight back 10 times. I see a lot of my mistakes, a lot of things I must change and we have worked on them. This fight, I will be better.”
Hughes also expects a much better Usman this time around and, although he takes plenty of encouragement from their first fight, is aware he will need to change things to take the win.
He has previous for prevailing in a rematch, beating Jordan Vucenic to take the Cage Warriors featherweight title in 2022 after suffering his first career loss to the Englishman two years earlier, and feels that experience will benefit him against Usman.
“I’ve five rounds of experience with him, learn what I can from that and implement it on the night,” said Hughes.
“I’m under no illusion he will have a different gameplan and better gameplan this time, as will I, so I’m interested to see how that will clash on the night and who will perform better.
“I also have experience from my Cage Warriors days of a rematch for a world title. I’ve been in this territory before and came out on top.”
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