UFC Fight Night 30: 'Teacher' Mark Munoz has some tricks up his sleeve for Lyoto Machida

After Michael Bisping was forced out of his Middleweight fight against Mark Munoz at UFC Fight Night 30 because of an eye injury, Lyoto Machida was taken out of his scheduled fight against Tim Kennedy to step in and fill the void.

Despite the fact that Munoz and Machida are frequent training partners.

Nevertheless, the two agreed to put all friendship aside in the spirit of mixed martial arts (MMA), earning some brownie points from Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) brass in the process.

The fact that both men have spent countless hours sparring against one another will give each of them some advantages going into this weekend's fight (Oct. 26, 2013) main event in Manchester, England.

But, at the end of the day, "Filipino Wrecking Machine" says he taught Machida more than what "The Dragon" taught him. In addition, there are always tricks hiding up the teacher's sleeves that he doesn't necessarily always divulge to the pupil, which he can use to his advantage on fight night.

Something he plans to do when the pair take center stage at Phones 4U Arena (via "The MMA Hour"):

"I do have some insight to fight the fight the way I want to and I think he knows that and I think he's going to use the tricks that I taught him against me. But, like every other coach and teacher, you have stuff that you can pull out of your sleeves. Having said that, it's going to be a great fight either way. I'm not much of a fighter that is able to kind of have no action. I always want to press the issue or have a passive aggressive style. Lyoto waits for someone to come into him. It's going to be a great fight and I plan on it. I've learned some stuff from him, too. It goes both ways. I taught him some stuff and he taught me some stuff. For the most part, we were training together. I brought some insight to wrestling and he brought some insight to striking. Yeah, it goes both ways, but I feel I taught him more than he taught me."

The showdown against Munoz will be Machida's first at 185 pounds after enjoying early Light Heavyweight success, capturing the 205-pound title with a win over Rashad Evans in 2008.

Since then, he's gone an even 4-4 with his last fight in the division being a loss against Phil Davis at UFC 163. And now the Brazilian looks for a fresh start in a new weight class.

How about it Maniacs, will the student (Machida) be able to outclass the teacher (Munoz) and teach him a thing or to in actual hand-to-hand combat when they collide across the pond?