(Don’t you know who my cousin is, bro?)

Now, I know fighters sometimes say ludicrous things in the heat of the moment when hyping upcoming fights, like Mir saying he wanted Brock to suffer the first Octagon-related death and Mike Tyson saying he wanted to eat Lennox Lewis’ children, but for some reason none of those remarks seem as asinine to me as something Manny Gamburyan said during an interview with MMAWeekly radio yesterday.

When asked about his upcoming WEC 51 fight Thursday night with featherweight champion Jose Aldo, who has drawn comparisons to Anderson Silva for his dangerous and flashy muay thai skills, Gamburyan had the following to say:

“If they’re comparing him to Anderson Silva, they should compare me with Fedor," Gamburyan said without cracking up. "If he’s Anderson Silva, most definitely, I’m Fedor.”

Sure you’re Fedor, Manny — if Fedor wasn’t as good as he is, if he dropped a decision to Thiago Tavares and if he got KTFO by Rob Emerson.


Maybe the reporter misunderstood what he said and wrote Fedor instead of Frodo. 

If you’ve recovered from laughing uncontrollably at Manvel’s most memorable claim since telling everyone he was "going to do genocide" on Mike Brown at WEC 48, get a load of how easy Manny thinks it will be to beat Aldo from studying tapes of the champ in action.

"I don’t see any trouble. I know what he’s going to do. He’s going to throw a lot of knees, kicks, leg kicks, high kicks, low kicks," he explained matter-of-factly like he discovered a cure for cancer. "I know exactly his game plan.”

As a wise man once told me from the other side of my television screen, "Knowing is half the battle." It’s how you use what you know. Knowing Jose is going to kick and  knee him to a living death isn’t going to help Manny if he doesn’t know how to defend the inevitable onslaught the champ is sure to heap on him.

That could explain why the odds are so skewed in Aldo’s favor at 4-1.

Gamburyan says he doesn’t let little things like odds and reality deter him.

"I’m always the little guy and I’m always the underdog. I’ve been enjoying it lately, being a big underdog," manny said. "So do my fans. I don’t care. I can be a 10-to-1 underdog. Look what happened against Mike Brown."

I’m not sure that’s a good comparison since Brown has been knocked out before and has shown chinks in his armor. Aldo hasn’t.

We’ll see in a couple days if "The Anvil" is in for a rude awakening.