Chris Daukaus says Shawn Teed less dangerous than when they first faced off

For Chris Daukaus, March 21 is a night of second chances, and the Cage Fury Fighting Championships heavyweight contender plans on capitalizing on the opportunity.

"I will not ride this fight out," Daukaus said. "I will go break him. It's just a matter of what round he wants to quit. It's as simple as that. I'm going to break him."

Daukaus (8-3) meets current heavyweight champion Shawn Teed (6-2-1) at CFFC 82, which streams live on UFC FIGHT PASS from Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena in Atlantic City, N.J. It's a rematch from a bout that originally took place in 2015 and saw Teed pick up a second-round submission in his professional debut.

Despite falling short in that first meeting, Daukaus said he's not overly concerned with his opponent's game.

"I actually think he was more dangerous then because no one knew about him," Daukaus said. "Now, everyone knows everything about him. I've improved in leaps and bounds, as opposed to him. Every fight from him, it's kind of the same thing. I kind of expect the same thing from him, so I'm not taking him lightly, but there's glaring weaknesses in his game that I look forward to exploiting come March 21."

Daukaus' is referring to, of course, Teed's vaunted grappling game, which has seen "The Norwegian Nightmare" earn four of his six career wins via submission, with all of the attacks based on torquing his opponents' arms. Daukaus said he's prepared for anything Teed might present.

"You can't overthink that," Daukaus said. "I'm not basing my camp around one specific thing that he does. I'm basing my camp on everything that I do well, everything that I do good. I have to make it his responsibility to adapt, and if he doesn't adapt, I'm taking that belt."

And about that belt – the CFFC heavyweight championship – that's another second chance for Daukaus, who came up short in his first bid for the title, suffering a loss this past March to Azunna Anyanwu, who has since moved on to the Bellator cage. Meanwhile, Daukaus has since rebounded with a first-round stoppage of Danny Holmes and now gets another crack at the title.

"Realistically, not to talk crap about anybody else, but there's really no one else worthy of the title shot," Daukaus said. "Yeah, I lost to 'Zu. He got the call. He went to Bellator. I got another quick fight turnaround. I won, and there's no reason why I shouldn't have gotten the call for the title fight."

When Daukaus enters the cage, it's for a matchup that does have some very real personal history. That said, he insists revenge isn't his primary focus.

"You're a fighter; you always want every loss back," Daukaus said. "Obviously, I wanted this fight to run it back, but it's nothing that haunted me or anything like that. It was just like, 'Eh, that would be good to fight him again.' I'm pumped that it's for the belt."

Daukaus said he took some lessons from his first title shot and won't make the same mistakes he did the first time around. He knows what's on the line – the CFFC title comes with the attention of matchmakers in the sport's biggest shows, and his brother, CFFC middleweight champ Kyle Daukaus, already looks like he's destined for a move up in the near future.

Chris wants to prove he belongs there, too.

"The way that the heavyweight division is in the UFC, you get that belt for CFFC, you either get the call for the Contender Series, or you can possibly get a short-notice call for the UFC," Daukaus said. "Anyone that's a champion for CFFC arguably can go in there and test the waters and compete with the best in the world in the UFC."

But first, it's Teed on March 21, and Daukaus knows exactly what needs to be done.

"It's my wife's birthday weekend that weekend, so I plan on giving her a belt for her birthday and putting a little extra money in my pocket," Daukaus said. "I'm going to smash him. That's what heavyweights do. That's what people want to see heavyweights do, so I'll give the crowd what they want."