Florian: I feel I can beat anybody at 145, and 155
Guilherme Cruz: What do you think about Jose Aldo? Do you think he’s one of the best pound for pound fighters?…
Guilherme Cruz: What do you think about Jose Aldo? Do you think he’s one of the best pound for pound fighters?
Kenny Florian: Absolutely. For a long time I thought that Jose Aldo was one of the best fighters in the world pound for pound. I’ve been a fan of his since the first time I saw him fight. He’s really exciting, very, very fast, explosive… That’s the kind of fighter I like to watch. Aldo’s been a great champion, but way I see it, it’s just business, we have to fight and this has been a dream of mine, it’s a dream of his and it’s gonna be who wants it more. And that’s what it comes down to.
GC: Do you think you’ll be better than Jose Aldo at UFC 136?
KF: I hope so. I don’t think that many times I’ve tried to focus most on trying to fight the best that night. You have to prepare yourself to be a better fighter during training and then prepare yourself to fight best on the fight night, because sometimes the better fighter doesn’t always win. You have to fight smart, you have to prepare, you have to execute. For everything that I’m doing at my training camp I feel that I know I can beat anybody at 145lbs and even at 155lbs. If I fight the way I know I can fight, I’m very confident that I can give a difficult fight for anybody.
GC: Do you think your game plan with the ground and pound and elbows is the perfect way to beat him?
KF: I don’t know, you know. No one has solved the puzzle of Jose Aldo yet. I don’t think there’s one way to beat him. I think it’s a complicated fight. Anytime you go against a guy like Aldo, you can’t just say I’m gonna do this I’m gonna do that. I think against Aldo you have to beable to beat him everywhere, and that’s what I’m really focusing on, is being able to face the best of his stand-up, being able to wrestle with Jose Aldo, being able to do Jiu-Jitsu with Jose Aldo. That’s gonna be the key. I used to worry so much about strategy, what I’m gonna do here, what I’m gonna do there, I let my coaches do that now and I just kinda fight. I’m prepared to stand-up with him, I’m prepared to go to the ground or whatever. I think it’s a close fight everywhere. I think he has some advantages and I have some advantages and it’s gonna be who’s able to execute it on October 8th.
GC: After this fight do you see you moving back to the lightweight division?
KF: You know, definitely there’re some thoughts in my mind about that, I still feel like I have some unsolved business there, but right now I’d be a food if I looked pass Jose Aldo. The only thing in my mind right now is Jose Aldo and when we get there we get there.