According to a recent article appearing in the Boston Herald, their hometown boy, UFC top-five lightweight contender and Dover, MA native, Kenny “Ken-Flo” Florian, is now set to square-off against undefeated Phoenix, AZ native, Gray Maynard.

Florian will face Maynard, who is also a top UFC lightweight divisional contender, when the world’s biggest MMA promotion, the UFC, makes it’s premier showing at Boston’s TD Garden scheduled tentatively for Aug. 28.

“I’m going to go out there and just have fun. This is a great time to be fighting and I’m definitely very lucky,” stated the soft-spoken Florian.

Certainly, Florian would like to get another crack at the lightweight title, which now belongs to newly-crowned champion Frankie Edgar, yet Ken-Flo also seems to understand the inner workings of the fight game, and is therefore willing to wait his turn.

“I understand for marketing purposes,” Florian said. “They’re a business and they have to put fights together that make sense, that are going to generate the most amount of buys, and all that stuff. At the end of the day, I still think B.J. Penn and myself are the biggest names in the division. But I have no problem waiting. I’m a patient guy and it just gives me more time to really work on my game.”

Florian lost his most recent title attempt last August via rear naked choke to then-champion Penn at the UFC 101 event, held in the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, PA.

The loss to Penn didn’t sit well with Florian.

“But now, it really is completely in the back of my mind,” Florian stated.

“I don’t think about it that much at all. I’m just really focused on the present—not the past, not the future. (I’m focused) on what I need to do every day to become a better fighter.”

Florian also interestingly has another title-shot loss on his resume dating back to October of ’06 against Sean Sherk.

So with a win this coming August, against a highly-touted and undefeated Maynard, he would possibly gain a third crack at the title—this time against Edgar.

However, according to his boss, UFC president Dana White, Florian becomes somewhat of an enigma when facing current champions, and the president didn’t sound all too optimistic regarding another shot at the belt for Ken-Flo happening anytime soon.

“I like the way Kenny Florian fights when he’s not fighting for a title,” White said.

“When he’s fighting for the title, Kenny comes in with a completely different gameplan and fights not like Kenny Florian,” added White. “When he’s fighting for the title. I think he’s got a title mental-blockage,” he said.

“If Frankie beat B.J. again, yeah, that would probably be a good thing for Kenny,” White said. “We’ll see how this whole thing shakes out.”

Florian stated that even though a win would put him in line for another title shot, he needs to stay focused on the task at hand.

“I’ve changed over the years, now it’s just about taking it one fight at a time and really just appreciating those opportunities.”

Ken-Flo is one of the UFC’s most popular fighters, a true gentleman, and a respected sportsman in and out of the ring.

So one thing is for certain, Florian will have tons of fan support when he fights in his home state for the very first time this coming summer, and he deserves every ounce of it.

The best of luck to Florian in his upcoming fight.

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Courtesy of :Bleacher Report – UFC