Kendall Grove is excited about his next challenge
When Kendall Grove trains for a fight, he never takes his opponent lightly.
As he prepares for his UFC 101 fight with Ricardo Almeida, he is surprised how little credit some people are giving his opponent.
“I did a couple of other interviews where they called Ricardo a one-dimensional fighter,” Grove told MMAMadness.com. “I’m not trying to hype him up, but he’s a great one-dimensional fighter. He has awesome jiu jitsu and he could end the fight at any time.”
That jiu jitsu game has Grove concerned enough that he has flown world class wrestlers and Brazilian jiu jitsu black belts to Hawaii to help him prepare for Almeida’s attack. His game plan going into the fight is reminiscent of Chuck Liddell.
“We had a good camp, worked a lot of angles, a lot of sprawl-and-brawl,” Grove said. “Definitely going to want to keep this fight on my feet, definitely ready to go and get taken down and use my best ability to stand up.”
Grove has also seen his striking improve significantly since his last fight, and will look to use his range and superior striking to make Almeida uncomfortable on his feet.
Grove also says that this is probably his toughest fight yet, and that Almeida has the skills to beat him. The only prediction that Grove will offer for the fight is that fans can expect him to come to fight.
Grove gives so much respect to his opponents because he never wants to get a big head. Part of his success, he says, comes from having the right mindset. That mindset, interestingly enough, includes never wanting to be the best fighter in the world.
“I might be the first fighter to ever tell you that I don’t want to be the best,” Grove said. “I want to fight and beat the best, but I never want to be considered the best because there’s always somebody out there that can kick your ass. I might sound crazy for saying that, but that’s just the way I look at it.”
Grove also faces the unique obstacle of a 12-hour plane ride and six-hour time change when he travels from Hawaii to Philadelphia for his fight. While he already experienced a similar trip flying from Las Vegas to England for a fight, Grove is aware that jet lag can wreak havoc on a fighter’s body.
“By weigh-ins [for the England fight] I was having good night sleeps. Even then, I was still messed up with getting acclimated,” Grove said.
To make the trip a little bit easier, Grove is flying to Orange County a week early, and will conduct the last week of his training camp there with BJ Penn’s team. This will essentially cut his travel time in half, and will give him more time to acclimate to the time change.
Penn, who Grove cross-trained with for the last two fights, has spent the majority of his training camp in California, preparing for his title fight with Kenny Florian. Grove would have travelled with Penn, but he had an important engagement that kept him in Hawaii until last Sunday.
Grove’s daughter, Chloe, turned one year old last Saturday, and took her first steps just days before that. Grove was expecting about 300 guests for her party, and wanted to stay and make sure that everything went well.
Cameron Gidari is the Associate Editor at MMAMadness.com. He can be reached with questions and comments at cgidari@mmamadness.
kendall has some real potential,very confident in his abilities and determined,he can go very far with abit of luck.