UFC
UFC QUOTABLES: Kenny Florian has been improving his wrestling in preparation for Gray Maynard at UFC 118
Aug 11, 2010 - 5:58:41 PM UFC QUOTABLES: Kenny Florian has been improving his wrestling in preparation for Gray Maynard at UFC 118

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

"I definitely worked on my wrestling. Maybe a little more than normal, but it’s something I’ve been working on for a long time. I’ve been working on it a lot since the B.J. [Penn] fight. I’ve worked with a lot of high level wrestlers since then. It’s not something that was going to get better for this camp. I had to have gotten better way before. You are not going to improve your wrestling in one training camp. I’ve been working on it a long time and I think it is paying off. Right now, I’m facing Maynard at a great point. He’s going to use his wrestling. I’m looking forward to seeing if the hard work I’ve been putting in ends up paying off."

-Kenny Florian talks to Derek Bolender at BleacherReport.com about prepping his wrestling game for his UFC 118 bout Gray Maynard later this month.

Penick's Analysis: This is the one aspect of Florian's game that needs to be improved upon the most from previous performances if he's going to go out and defeat Gray Maynard. Looking at the fight Florian had with Sean Sherk in 2006, it's obvious that this was an area of major weakness for him, but he's continually worked to improve that aspect of his game, and as he says here has been doing it even more since the B.J. Penn fight. In front of his hometown crowd, I'm expecting Florian to be much improved in this front, allowing him to hold off Maynard's takedowns and take the fight over from there.

[Kenny Florian art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]