UFC 106 interview: Grove is growing weary of decisions
Kendall Grove likes being above the fray in the life but it's not the easiest thing to deal with in the Octagon. At 6-foot-6, he's got to be the tallest middeweight fighters in the world. That length definitely gives him a striking advantage especially with his kicks but it can prove to be a nightmare when Grove faces a wrestler or grappler. He was visibly frustrated when facing jiu-jitsu ace Ricardo Almeida at UFC 101. Grove lost that fight because he couldn't stay out of Almeida's clinch and now he's got a three-time NCAA wrestling champ standing in front of him in Jake Rosholt at UFC 106.
"That's why I love this game. It's a gamble. You never know what fighter's going to show up that night," Grove told Cagewriter. "I'm just going to come out and do what I do best, be exciting and not worry about the takedowns so much."
Grove drilled his wrestling heavily and changed his strength workouts. The Hawaiian took the advice of B.J. Penn and worked for four weeks with Marv Marinovich. The 28-year-old feels stronger but he may not be at the same athletic level as Penn or Rosholt yet. Both of those guys have the "famed YouTube pool jump" to their credit. Penn was the first MMA fighter to explode on the net (3.51 million views) with his leap from three feet of water. That's without the assistance of his hands. Rosholt topped Penn by doing it backwards.
This is a big fight for both guys. Rosholt (6-1, 2-1 UFC) needs to continue to show that he can handle good strikers and Grove (10-6, 5-3 UFC) really needs to shore up his takedown defense if he wants rise above being more than a card filler at 185 pounds.
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