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WICHITA, Kan. – Maurice Greene was in “tip-top shape” when he met Jeff Hughes at LFA 38, but that didn’t prevent him from losing the promotion’s heavyweight belt in a five-round battle.

Less than one year later, Greene (7-2 MMA, 2-0) met Hughes (10-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) in a cage again. This time, Greene got the call on short-notice and was “out of shape and 10 pounds overweight” when he said yes. But, unlike what happened in the LFA headliner, Greene was the one leaving the cage with the win, via split-decision.

The difference between then and now?

“I didn’t play the game plan and, tonight, it was a simple game plan,” Greene told MMA Junkie backstage at INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita, Kan. “Maurice, stay long, stay behind your jab, rest behind your jab. We got into some tussling situations and I think I won those with my elbows and control. That’s a credit to everything that Kelvin Gastelum and Coach T, and all of the reviewing of ‘The Ultimate Fighter (28)’ that we did, was a lot of the stuff I did tonight.”

Much like a lot of the fighters who find themselves in that split-screen situation as the scorecards are announced, Greene was a little apprehensive about which way the call was going to go. Ultimately, though, he believed he’d done enough with his octagon control.

It wasn’t an ideal display for Greene, who wished he could have pushed it more and mixed it up more for the fans. But, given the short-notice call and the weight cut, Greene had to breathe and make sure had enough on the gas tank for the entire fight.

The main goal was to play it smart and win, which Greene did, and “you can only be happy with that.”

After passing his octagon “audition” with a TUF 28 Finale win, following a loss in the show’s semifinals, Greene has improved to 2-0 in the UFC. That’s not a bad start, but Greene believes it’s still too early to be issuing call-outs.

“I’m trying to get my foot in the door, build my miles,” Greene said. “I’m trying to get my fight time and just kind of finding my place. There will come a time when it’s time to call out somebody. If I can’t call out somebody in the top-10 I’m not going to call nobody out right now. It just doesn’t make sense. For me to sit up here and say, ‘I want so and so in the top 10,’ it’s not smart. Like (champ Daniel Cormier) said, there’s levels to this game.”

He does, however, have a request for his next octagon outing. And he stressed it rather emphatically both in the cage and backstage.

“How are you going to come to Minneapolis and not have yours truly, ‘The Crochet Boss,’ on the card?” Greene said. “It just don’t make sense. It’s like having peanut butter with no jelly – that just don’t make sense. ‘The Crochet Boss’ and Minneapolis, that makes sense. That’s how I feel. I’ve got a lot of fans out there and why not fill that arena, have them chanting, ‘The Crochet Boss’? Get them pumped up. I love this (expletive), I really do.”

Minneapolis is set to host UFC on ESPN 4, which takes place June 29 at Target Center. Another one of Saturday’s winners, Anthony Rocco Martin, also requested a spot on the same upcoming card.

To hear more from Greene, check out the video above.

And for complete coverage of UFC on ESPN+ 4, check out the UFC Events section of the site.