Filed under: UFC
Every fighter wants a chance to compete in front of a hometown crowd. At least they think they do. There’s no hassle with airports, no strange restaurants, no frantic searches for a health food store so you can stock your hotel room with gluten-free whatever. It’s familiar. It’s home. And it doesn’t hurt that you get to walk out on fight night to a unanimous chorus of cheers.
But sometimes home isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Not when every local media outlet wants a piece of you and every person who ever sat next to in a high school geometry class wants you to get them a ticket to the fights.
That’s the situation Boston native Kenny Florian is in this week. On Saturday night at UFC 118 he takes on Gray Maynard in a fight to determine who will get the next crack at the UFC lightweight title, and he does it in front of a hometown crowd that will place its hopes and expectations for a local victory onto his narrow shoulders.
“It can be a little distracting,” Florian told MMA Fighting. “But it’s stuff I’ve dealt with before. People want you to get them tickets to every fight. You have to win every fight. You always have your fans supporting you and people in your corner expecting you to do well. That’s just how it is.”