Frank sent this in:

Manny Gamburyan has been saying all week that “I hit harder” than Leonard Garcia, but Bad Boy is beyond skeptical.

“He comes in there brave and he’s going to get knocked out,” Garcia vowed.

More than likely, once Gamburyan tastes his punching power, Garcia believes the short and stocky Armenian judo specialist will shoot for a takedown or attempt a throw. That is why Garcia has worked extensively with Joe “Daddy” Stevenson leading up to this fight.

“Joe kind of has the same body type as Manny,” said Garcia, who, like Gamburyan, formerly competed in the UFC’s 155-pound division before dropping a weight class. “They’ve got a really good squeeze because they’re so compact. Normally when I get against the cage I let the guy take me down because I feel strong in my jiu-jitsu. But after rolling with Joe I realized that if I let (Manny) take me down there is a possibility that he can hold me there. So for this fight we worked a lot of getting the guy more stretched out” to defend the takedown.

While Garcia is highly regarded as one of the scrappiest fighters on the planet, no one is going to confuse his takedown defense with, say, Chuck Liddell’s. But the affable Texan says he’s working hard to improve that weakness in his game, realizing it could be the difference between winning and losing on Wednesday at The Palms in Las Vegas.

“On a 1 to 10 I’m a 5 right now” in takedown defense, Garcia said. “Hopefully after this fight I’ll be considered an 8. We really focused on wrestling for this fight, stretching the guy out, not letting him be so compact, not letting him just take me down.”

Both Garcia and Gamburyan believe a win would position them for a crack at the WEC featherweight title, though nothing is etched in stone. Garcia craves a rematch with titleholder Mike Brown, the only man to stop him in his illustrious, decade-long career. For that grudge match to materialize, Brown must defeat Jose Aldo in the WEC 44 main event and WEC matchmaker Sean Shelby will have to see something in Garcia that shows he merits another title shot.

Garcia said the lopsided loss to Brown no longer weighs on his mind, and that it was erased after his last outing, a split decision win over Jameel Massouh in August. The Greg Jackson-trained fighter dropped Massouh in the first round, then gassed and fought off several dangerously close submissions to escape with the win. Garcia attributed his subpar performance to overtraining and said he has made the necessary changes during his most recent training camp. Before the Massouh fight, Garcia, known for his wild, free-swinging ways and occasional haymakers, expressed a commitment to reforming his reckless style and becoming more technical and controlled. Though he missed the mark against Massouh, Garcia expects a more polished and refined display against The Anvil.

“I’ve grown as a fighter. I feel like my aggression was always getting the better or me. My emotions were getting the better of me and I was not relaxing,” Garcia said. “In this fight I’m going to show the Leonard Garcia that should have shown up a couple years back and would be champion now. It’s a controlled chaos now, I’m not just sporadic and all over the place.”

In another interesting development, Garcia said that he and good friend Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone have begun mentoring up and coming fighters who are on the verge of breaking into the UFC and WEC.

“Me and Cowboy started a TapOut house where we allow six different fighters each month to come and live and train with us,” Garcia said. “That fueled a big fire inside of me because now I’m a guy who six other guys are looking up and trying to reach my point. Those guys are coming in there and coming after me and some of them are high level guys. It really helps to have that new fire in the house. That’s a new development that is helping me in the fight game.”

Garcia said a pilot of the show is being shot that will eventually be shopped to various television networks in the hopes of securing a deal.