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"Florian's tough, but I'm prepared for him. I've had some tough scraps. Nate, that's a tough guy to fight. Huerta, again, that's a tough guy to fight, and Florian had a pretty close one with him. [Jim] Miller, he's done good. I keep going through them...
Florian's had some quick ones, ran through whoever, I don’t judge a guy on that. I judge a guy when it's a tough scrap. Does he keep straight and keep moving ahead? With [B.J.] Penn, I saw him change his plan up quickly when he got hit really hard. Maybe it’s true, maybe it's not, but that was a tough fight. That's how I judge him...
He has beat Clay, which you get down to it, Clay's about half and half for the UFC. Lot of losses, and some decent wins, he's alright, but he did good, Florian did...
Florian's a tough guy, and I don't think I've ever tried to [look past an opponent]. I know people were trying to tell me 'you've got to call out Penn and stuff' when I had Nate [Diaz]. I knew that was a tough fight ahead of me. That's a dangerous fight. How the hell am I going to try to call out the guy who has the belt, when it's Nate in front of me? I concentrate on whoever I have and that's that."
-Gray Maynard talks to MMAWeekly.com about his UFC 118 opponent Kenny Florian and not looking past him.
Penick's Analysis: Maynard cannot look past Florian in this fight, and he needs to realize that he's not B.J. Penn. Florian may have come up short against B.J. in their fight last August, but outside of that fight and the loss to Sean Sherk in 2006, he's won 11 fights since losing to Diego Sanchez at the end of The Ultimate Fighter's first season. Florian has continuously adapted his game from fight to fight, and he will be the toughest opponent Maynard has faced to date. Hopefully he's up for the challenge and we see a hell of a lightweight fight in Boston.
RELATED STORY: UFC QUOTABLES: Kenny Florian ready to spoil the party of "cocky" Gray Maynard at UFC 118: [CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE]
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"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...
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