Due to James Toney ‘WTF did he say now?’ antics regarding Saturday’s tilt with Randy Couture, plus the understandable speculation about how Frankie Edgar vs. BJ Penn II will play out, the fact that Kenny Florian is also fighting Gray Maynard at UFC 118 has kind of gotten lost in the mix. Not that we should talk of course, as we’ve been drawn to the Toney pre-fight sh-t show just as much as the next guy, but when you think about it, Florian vs. Maynard is huge. Both guys are top contenders; both have taken out some notable fighters, and a win for either dude is crucial. If Maynard wins, he’s gotta be a lock for a title shot; if Florian wins, then things could get really, really, complicated (depending on what happens with Edgar vs. Penn II).

It will be interesting to see how Florian handles Maynard’s size, power and wrestling, especially since “KenFlo” has improved leaps and bounds since he was grounded and pounded to a UD loss by Sean Sherk. Speaking to Heavy.com about this Saturday’s tilt, here is some of what Florian had to say:

“This is the biggest challenge of my career, my way of proving to myself how far I’ve come,” Florian said. “My striking is at higher level. My jiu-jitsu, conditioning, and even wrestling are all better. I’m going to play the same game I always play. I’m going to be aggressive, go forward and wait for a mistake. Hopefully that mistake will come at some point and hopefully I’ll be there to capitalize on it.”

Should be a doozy. To bet on it head here.

It may have been overshadowed by Rich Franklin’s one-punch KO of Chuck Liddell at UFC 115 (it’s pretty hard to top the magnitude of that…Liddell was on Entourage after all…) but another of the card’s big stories was Evan Dunham’s decision win over Tyson Griffin, as it spoke volumes about the undefeated fighter’s potential.  The Oregon fighter has now gone 4-0 in the Octagon and also holds wins over TUF winner Efrain Escudero, Marcus Aurelio, and Per Eklund; people are starting to talk…

Now, if you haven’t closely monitored Dunham’s career and don’t want to take our word for it, consider what Kenny Florian said recently on ESPN’s MMA Live (thanks to MMA Fighting for the quote).

“Dunham beat one of the most successful lightweights out there, one of the toughest lightweights out there, and now he is an upper-echelon lightweight, no doubt about it,” Florian said.

Florian also credited Dunham for his jiu-jitsu and takedowns, praising the lightweight for his ability to take Griffin down (who knows a thing or two about wrestling) and controlling him there. In other words, based on the performance, it would appear as though Dunham has the tools to give a lot of guys trouble. Just a refresher, Griffin’s only other losses thus far in the UFC came against current champ Frankie Edgar, and former champ, Sean Sherk. Not bad.

Speaking of Florian, the UFC confirmed yesterday that, as expected, he’ll fight Gray Maynard, at UFC 118 in Boston. Wicked awesome no?

We were quick to join the internet line handing Kenny Florian his much deserved props earlier this week, after the veteran lightweight cruised through former Pride champ Takanori Gomi at UFC Fight Night, for the third round submission win. “Ken Flo’s” striking was bang on once again, and his ground game, well, we appreciate that Gomi could beat down 99% of the world’s population, but once it hit the mat it wasn’t even close.

What makes Florian’s performance even more impressive, however, is news that the former TUF competitor had bursitis in his right knee heading into the bout. Couldn’t really tell could you? Speaking to the Boston Herald about the injury, Florian stated:

“It was just a matter of dealing with the pain out there,” Florian said. “Once I was out there, I didn’t feel it. I didn’t feel anything.”

“I just listened to my body and I rested when I had to rest,” Florian said. “As much as it killed me to sit on the couch, I had to rest. I was already in tremendous shape. Thank God I was in excellent shape so it wasn’t a factor.”

Damn. That must have been wicked hard (and we say so while doing our awful impersonation of a Boston accent). So in other words, Florian wasn’t at his best and still rolled out with a win like that…scary.

So, after we waxed on about how big a deal Takanori Gomi was in Japan for years, and that further, any MMA fan worth their weight in hot wings should know about “The Fireball Kid’s” resume, if last night was indeed your first time watching Gomi- you might have been thinking ‘meh’? Well, although the bout probably didn’t send anyone into hysterics, Kenny Florian once again demonstrated why he is one of very best at 155. Mr. Florian put on a clinic standing ,and when the bout hit the mat, he kicked right into ‘that’s a wrap’ mode. In other words, it’s pretty understandable that going up against a dude like Florian, Gomi might not have blown anyone’s socks off…

So what’s next for Florian? It wasn’t long ago that he failed to take out the ruling emperor of the lightweight division in BJ Penn, so for now, he’ll have to continue facing other notable contenders on the UFC roster. Well, at last night’s post-fight presser, Florian was asked about his immediate future and in particular, about Gray Maynard. You know, the undefeated, massive wrestler who holds wins over Frankie Edgar,  Roger Huerta and Jim Miller.  Yeah, he’s no slouch. (Thanks to MMA Junkie for the quote)

“Gray Maynard said he wanted to get the winner of this fight,” Florian said. “He’s a tremendous competitor.”

Yes. Mr. Maynard is a tremendous competitor, and due to the fact Florian went on to say he feels “blessed to be able to compete against the best guys in the best organization”, sounds like it could be Gray’s move (or Penn’s, depending on whether or not he beats Edgar, and stays at 155).

After taking pot shots at newbie fans who are completely unaware about the accomplishments of Takanori Gomi (the Japanese dude that’s fighting Kenny Florian tomorrow night), we were quick to concede that “The Fireball Kid” hasn’t exactly been a world beater lately (he wasn’t even able to be a Sergey Golaev beater in November, 2008). In other words, although any true MMA fan should hang their head in shame if they don’t know about Gomi’s glory days, the internet certainly hasn’t been riddled with fantastic tales about the lightweight over the last year or so.

So what happened to Gomi you may be asking? Good question. This is a guy that after losing to BJ Penn  in 2003, won 13 of his next 15 fights, several of which came against highly regarded opponents. It was a time when Gomi could tell anyone with a straight face that ‘I’m a pretty big deal.’ Well, in a report from MMA Junkie, Gomi offered this statement when asked about his recent decline.

“I’m lazy,” Gomi admitted with a laugh. “It was hard to stay motivated for fighting for so many years. I knew I should have trained more before the fights. But when I go to the ring now, I want to show an explosive fight.

Well at least he’s being honest. It also sounds like he understands that laziness and fighting in the UFC doesn’t usually lead to success. To bet on tomorrow’s tilt head here.

Last week we passed along a quote from Kenny Florian, who criticized those fans from the TUF generation, that don’t know who former Pride champion Takanori Gomi is (pssst- that’s Kenny’s opponent for Wednesday). In other words, don’t call yourself a ‘massive’ MMA fan, if you’re completely unaware of Gomi’s extensive accomplishments while fighting in the land of the rising sun (or if the only non-UFC fighter you can name is ‘oh that Russian dude, Federer something…’)

Now to be fair, Gomi hasn’t exactly been dominating headlines in Japan lately, like say, Shinya ‘I broke your arm now eff off’ Aoki. Although Gomi has won back-to-back fights, he is just 3-2 in his last five, and many observers around the sport have long speculated as to whether or not “The Fireball Kid’s” best days are behind him. While talking to MMA Weekly, however, Florian disagreed with the contention that Gomi is no longer world class opposition.

 ”I don’t buy any of that ‘Gomi has been declining.’ I don’t believe that’s the case at all,” said Florian in an interview with MMAWeekly Radio recently.

“From what I hear, it seems like it’s his last run. When you get a guy like that who says things like that, he’s a dangerous guy,” said the Bostonian. “He wants to make one last run at getting a belt in a major organization. He feels this is the toughest organization in the world, which it is, and he’s going out there for blood.”

It’s going to be damn interesting to see how Gomi fairs against Florian; one of the UFC’s best. To bet on the tilt head here.

In completely unrelated but not really fitness/training news, subscribe for online personal training videos here.

We here at MMA Fix enjoy belittling the new generation of ‘cage fighting’ fans, who claim to have undying love for the sport, while refusing to watch any fight not being called by Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan (although one could argue that this is a clearer indication that we have no life…). We’re huge UFC fans, of course, but there’s a lot more to MMA than just the sport’s most successful promotion.

Now, sure, MMA newbies might have to take certain steps to catch up on the glory days of Pride, or to check out other smaller promotions, but it’s certainly a far cry from the old days when digging for diamonds was less time consuming than finding MMA footage.

While speaking to Fighters Only Magazine about his upcoming March 31^st bout with former Pride champion Takanori Gomi (who back in the day was also widely regarded to be one of the world’s best P4P fighters), Kenny Florian offered a statement that old school fans undoubtedly will agree with.

“I think it’s a huge treat for the hardcore fans who’ve been following this sport for awhile.  It’s always surprising to have newer fans who ask me who I’m fighting and I say ‘Takanori Gomi’ and they say ‘Who is that?’ And I’m like, ‘You haven’t been following this sport, obviously,’”

Amen brother. Amen. To bet on that fight, which should be fantastic, head here.

Although the bout has been ‘out of the bag’ for sometime now, the UFC confirmed today that Kenny Florian will take on former Pride champion Takanori Gomi, at the promotion’s upcoming March 31^st Fight Night 21 card. Now, if you’re a newbie to the sport and are thinking ‘who the hell is Gomi’, it’s probably best to keep that question to yourself.  Just keep an eye out for Spike’s new “Best of Pride” series, and you’ll  find out why Gomi had one of the biggest nuthugging legion of fans the sport has ever seen. It’s umm, 100% likely that the show will be running some of Gomi’s finest moments (and there’s plenty) as we head towards the end of March.

That’s not to say that Gomi doesn’t still have a lot of fans, but after losses to Nick Diaz (yeah, yeah, no-contest nonsense aside), Sergey Golyaev (cue Google search) and Satoru “Where’s my ACL?” Kitaoka, the “Fireball Kid’s” stock isn’t exactly at an all time high. Still, Gomi can punch effin hard and is a decent wrestler, so, the potential for a  great throwdown with Ken Flo is definitely there.

The UFC has also announced that it will do its best job of impersonating the number 10 at Fight Night 21, by matching up its lankiest heavyweight against its fattest (thus the image of ten…) Yup, 6’11 tall Stefan “Beanpole” Struve is going to face 6’0, 260lb. plus Roy “Big Country” Nelson. Although Struve has only lost 3 times in over 20 fights, we’re seeing a sweaty belly crucifix in his short term future.

To see all of the confirmed bouts for the March 31^st Fight Night 21 card, which will take place in Charlotte, NC, head here.

One of the interesting background stories to this Wednesday’s UFC Fight Night card, in Oklahoma City, is the fact that it could mark the last time Roger Huerta takes to the Octagon. That’s a crazy thing to consider really, after all, it’s not that long ago that the UFC was grooming Huerta to be one of the promotion’s biggest stars.

After losing to Kenny Florian by Unanimous Decision at UFC 87 last August, which was just Huerta’s second career loss, the 26 year-old-fighter continued to talk openly about the fact he wanted to pursue acting. (Seems like its contagious) Despite receiving a new multi-fight deal offer from the UFC, (this was well after Dana White told Roger to go stand in the corner for criticizing the promotion regarding compensation) Huerta turned it down, and on Wednesday night, the rising star will complete the terms on his current deal by taking on Gray Maynard.

In a recent interview with UFC writer Thomas Gerbasi, Huerta was asked whether or not he might consider staying active as a fighter, if he beats Maynard in “spectacular fashion.”

“To be honest, I have not even looked that far yet,” said Huerta. “That’s the God’s honest truth. I’ve looked into my opponent, Gray, and beating him. Any kind of decisions I have to make after that, it’s obviously gonna be with my family, my management team, and my trainers.”

Okay, that wasn’t a no, but considering Huerta also states in the interview that he wants to pursue acting while he’s still young, even if bombs out Maynard Wednesday, sounds like the words ‘cut’ rather than ‘let’s get it on,’ are in his immediate future.

Just when you thought that BJ Penn’s recent win over Kenny Florian at UFC 101 would go quietly into the night without any post-fight drama, rumblings of ‘eye pokes’ and illegal tactics have begun to surface from Florian’s camp. (No word yet as to whether or not Mrs. Florian will appear on behalf of her son in front of an athletic commission)

Speaking to Fighthype.com, Kenny Florian’s brother Keith was reportedly quoted saying:

There are a lot of things that happened during the fight that you may or you may not have seen. Kenny got poked in the eye, which BJ is notorious for. He did it against Matt Hughes twice in one fight and once in their first fight. He did it against Georges St. Pierre in both fights. He was hitting behind the head all of the time. Kenny won’t say this, but I certainly will.

In an appearance on MMA Junkie Radio, Kenny Florian agreed with his brother’s contention that he was poked in the eye during his bout with Penn, but added “I don’t want to use that as an excuse, though,” and that further “I’m going to go ahead and say they were accidental.”

So, it looks like Kenny is attempting to sidestep any controversy, while his brother Keith is clearly more than willing to spark up another sh#tstorm with the Penn crew. (Although to really piss of Penn, Keith should have accused him of greasing…)

With BJ probably taking on Diego Sanchez next, we think the champion should just save his verbal ammunition for his next challenger. Afterall, the word’s ’softspoken’ and ‘easygoing’ have never been used to describe “The Nightmare”.  (Although ’scary’ and ‘a little off’ likely have)