THE TORCH: THE #1 WORLDWIDE BRAND IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE - OVER 250 MILLION VIEWS & LISTENS PER YEAR REREACHING MORE FANS EVERY WEEK THAN ANY OTHER INDEPENDENT SOURCE • VIA THE WEB, MOBILE, PRINT NEWSLETTER, AND ITUNES
"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]
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick, Rich Hansen, and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
"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...
PART OF THE USA TODAY UFC GROUP