He is calm. He is jovial. He sounds like he is prepared to fight Joe Lauzon at UFC Fight Night April 2 on SpikeTV. But as soon I decided to mention that my idle New York Yankees are one game ahead in the loss column of his Boston Red Sox, it sounded as if Kenny Florian had four cups of Dunkin' Donuts drip.
"Already???," the Westwood, Massachusetts native said laughingly about my mention of the BoSox/Yanks rivalry. "Last year was definitely a good year. We'll see what happens this year. You guys got us back with the friggin' Giants. It'll never stop. One way or another we're always going to try to get one up on each other. It's a fun rivalry, man."
But this match isn't a New York/Boston thing. With Brockton-born and East Bridgewater-raised Joe Lauzon standing across the Octagon next Wednesday, it's a fight not only for ascension up the UFC lightweight ladder but for New England bragging rights as well.
(Photo courtesy of UFC)
"I honestly don't feel any pressure," Florian said of the intrastate battle. "It's another biggest fight of my life. With him, it's the biggest fight of his life."
Florian also went on to add what an honor it was to be in another main event for the UFC. He mentioned that he's done more interviews for this fight than he's ever had to do before, which has led to some interesting pre-fight banter between the two.
"It started off as I was very respectful, he was always respectul and lately the last couple of weeks he's been doing some interviews that were very disrespectful," Florian said. "I'm just fired up for this fight. I can't wait to get in there. I think from training with [UFC lighweight champion] BJ Penn, I think he thinks he's BJ Penn. He needs to realize BJ's not going to come in there and save him when I'm on top of him, pounding him in the face."
Florian (9-3, 6-2 UFC) has won and finished his last three fights after dropping a decision to Sean Sherk in 2006 for the vacant UFC lightweight title. Sherk was originally suspended last July after testing positive for Nandrolone. The former UFC lightweight champion denies that he took performance-enhancing drugs and appealed the suspension. Whether or not he was using performance-enhancing drugs before their fight, either way Florian doesn't feel that the loss should be taken off his record.
"That's just the way it goes," Florian said. "I don't want to use that as an excuse because there are things I should've done better. It comes down to me. Whether the person's using steriods or not, I should be able to beat them."
The former The Ultimate Fighter contestant gives a lot of credit to his kickboxing coach Mark DellaGrotte, the owner of Sityodtong, a Muay Thai and mixed martial arts academy with four locations around the world. In 2006, DellaGrotte took Florian to train in Thailand for three weeks to sharpen his Muay Thai skills.
"It was real inspirational," Florian said. "I really got to see what it's like to train like a Thai. To see the conditions that they're training in, the conditions that they're living in. Just being around world class Thai fighters, getting to see what they do, if I got a little of that then that was a huge improvement for me."
Florian didn't hear anything from the UFC about a possible title shot if he's able to get by Lauzon. Despite the amount of top-level contenders for the 155-pound title, he's got to be close. Right now, the Massachusetts native feels very confident going into his fight against Lauzon (15-3, 3-0).
"I honestly feel that I can take him out anywhere," Florian said. "My gameplan is to go out there pressure the kid and beat him at everything. I'm going to wait patiently while he makes a mistake."