No, but here’s another thing. I actually had Anthony, one of his friends was just signed by Mayweather and he fought Saturday night in Vegas and we do do a lot of cross-training with higher level guys. That’s how I got them good with it. I let Anthony train with pro boxers and a lot of the stuff you see them do, the cross training, we’re doing that, too.
Even if you have Anthony training with high level guys and Freddie Roach has told me that Georges St. Pierre could train with high level guys when he spars his boxing. What is the difference in talent levels between MMA’s best kickboxers and kickboxing’s best kickboxers? How far apart are they?
Somewhat far just because they do it full time, but then there’s guys like Anthony and other guys who can cross train over in another sport and do good. Especially if they did it as their full time job. When I say Anthony could be good at it, I mean if Anthony chose to do that 110 percent, he’d be just as good a level in the sport as he wanted to be, but he doesn’t. Obviously mixed martial arts is his passion and he’s got a great contract with the UFC.
The big thing, our country as a whole is weak in kickboxing because no one trains it here as much as they do in other countries. In Thailand, it’s twice a day six times a week. Holland, it’s at least 5-6 days a week of training hardcore. It’s like anything else. That’s almost comparative to, why are we so much better in the Midwest at wrestling compared to everyone else in the country? Here, wrestling is almost a religion. My wife’s hometown is like the movie Vision Quest. Grappling is huge where my wife grew up. We’re not even one of the bigger wrestling states. Think Iowa and Minnesota, they’re even crazier. It’s a culture about how big it’s gonna be.
Getting back to Aldo, tell me why you’re confident, why do you believe that Anthony Pettis, and if you to make the case in terms of striking, what is it about Anthony Pettis’ striking that makes him a good match-up for Aldo?
He’s fast, he’s strong and has a little bit more reach than Jose and Anthony is stronger in the later rounds than Jose Aldo.
Do you think it’s a fair criticism to say he fades?
He just starts to coast. You can tell that he’s a very explosive guy and he’s gonna struggle later in the fight. Is he very dangerous? Yeah. Is he very technical and aggressive? Yeah. If you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best so Anthony is a big stakes player. He loves big stakes fights and these are the fights that bring the best out of him and motivates him . I love seeing him motivated. He just reinvents himself every fight. The nice thing is Anthony doesn’t’ cut a lot of weight. The last three fights he didn’t even go to the sauna so he’s very meticulous with diet and nutritious so we’re gonna take advantage of the fight taking place in the summer. It’s a little bit harder in the winter than in the summer. In the summer, it’s very humid and hot and it makes it easier to make ’45 for him.
I don’t want you to give away your whole gameplan, but if you could give me one thing, what is one sort of technical flaw that you think could be taken advantage of against Aldo?
I’m not gonna say it’s a flaw, but the one thing is the low kicks. The leg kicks are going to be a non-issue. Leg kicks are a cool thing until someone knows how to block it. When you know how to block it, he’s the one that gets hurt, Aldo, not Anthony. That’s the one thing that has given a lot of people trouble and that’s the one thing Anthony prepared for real well with Cerrone and that was a non-issue there, too. Those leg kicks he launched, you saw Anthony block it and strike back right away. You did not see him throw a leg kick anymore.
