Kenny Florian's been there before. The UFC lightweight lost a title fight very early in his career against Sean Sherk and then ripped off six straight wins. Maybe he was a little hard-headed for his next shot against B.J. Penn. Florian stuck with a flawed gameplan and lost in the fourth round via rear-naked choke. He now knows it's important to stay grounded and he thinks Gray Maynard had better follow the same advice. "I definitely sense a sort of cockiness. A different attitude than what he's shown in the past," Florian said of his opponent at UFC 118 (0:22 mark). "I've been there too. We fall victim to it. I think he's overlooking me. I think he's already looking towards the title. He's definitely on the cocky side."At just 9-0 in MMA, Florian wonders where Maynard's cockiness is coming from. He also wants to see how Maynard deals with adversity. "Gray's never encountered that type of pressure. He's never never
encountered when someone's kind of beating down on him," Florian told Larry Pepe from ProMMA Radio (2:57 mark) "He's always been
the aggressor. He's always been the bully. It's easy to have fights
like that when you're winning the fight the whole time. How is he going
to respond when he's getting beaten down?" Maynard's never really been beaten down but he was frustrated to no end in his last fight against Nate Diaz. Diaz's incessant chatter in the Octagon took Maynard out of his game. If that screwed with Maynard's head, what happens if he's actually losing the fight? "How's he going to respond
when he's hurt and he's hurt again and he's hurt again," said Florian. "And he's losing
every minute of every round. What's that gonna feel like for him?" Maynard has been a lot more outspoken in the lead up to this fight. Part of that is the realization that guys like Dan Hardy, Paul Daley and even Diaz moved up the ladder a lot faster by self-promoting more heavily. Florian doesn't see that it's just a ploy by Maynard to push the fight and his image. He's been insulted by Maynard saying that he can beat Florian in every aspect of MMA. "If he doesn't respect my skills, he's gonna be in trouble," said Florian. He suggested Maynard will be full of excuses if he loses the fight. "It's gonna be one of those things where (Maynard says), 'I don't understand what happened or Kenny got lucky. Or I made a mistake and I'll be back and better than ever before.' I don't get that. It's created a lot of motivation for me."Florian doesn't talk a lot of trash but he decided to fire back at Maynard a little (6:10 mark). "I don't think he's the most exciting fighter," Florian said of Maynard. "I don't jump up and down when there's a Gray Maynard fight going on, but I do respect his skills."This is a huge fight in the lightweight division. The winner has a good shot at meeting the winner of Frank Edgar-B.J. Penn. From a promotional standpoint, you'd have to think the UFC would love to see Maynard victory.Check out Pepe's entire interview with Florian here.
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