Kenny Florian

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1 Profile
2 Early MMA Career
3 The Ultimate Fighter
4 UFC Career
5 Mixed martial arts record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

Kenny "KenFlo" Florian (born May 26, 1976) is an American professional mixed martial artist and a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt under Prof. Roberto Maia.

He stands 5 ft. 10 in. tall and fights in the lightweight division.

He was the runner-up on the The Ultimate Fighter Season 1 (TUF) and is currently a top lightweight contender in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He is also currently a member of Team Sityodtong, which is run by well respected trainer, Mark DellaGrotte.

Early MMA Career

Kenny Florian made his professional mixed martial arts debut January 25, 2003 against Jason Giroux at a Mass Destruction event held in Massachusetts. Florian emerged victorious with a first round TKO victory.

Florian's next professional bout came over a year later at another Mass Destruction event, this time against Bobby McAndrews. Florian scored another first round victory, this time by Kimura submission at 1.57 of round 1.

Five months later, Florian suffered his first professional loss against the much bigger, and much more experienced, Drew Fickett. At the time of the bout, Florian was 2-0 while Fickett came into the bout with a professional record of 22-2. Nonetheless, Florian stuck it to his opponent until eventually losing via decision.

The Ultimate Fighter

Rumor has it that UFC President, Dana White had attended the Fickett vs. Florian fight in order to scout Fickett for the upcoming first series of The Ultimate Fighter. However, after seeing the heart Florian showed in the fight, White instead elected to award Florian with a spot on TUF 1.

Florian made it onto the cast as a middleweight (185 lbs.), a whole 30 lbs. over his natural fighting weight. He was selected for Chuck Liddell's but eventually was transferred over to Team Couture. Due to the tournament layout in the earlier seasons, fighters were able to make it to the semi finals without having fought. As Florian was not selected for a preliminary fight he did just that and faced Team Couture teammate, Chris Leben in the semi finals.

After getting beaten up on the feet by the much bigger Leben for the majority of round 1, Florian landed a devastating elbow in round 2 that gave Leben a deep cut above his eye. The bout was stopped shortly thereafter and Florian moved onto the finale to face Diego Sanchez.

At The Ultimate Fighter 1 Finale, a clearly overmatched Florian was decimated by Sanchez who used his greater size to his advantage as he manhandled Florian on the ground on the way to a TKO stoppage at 2.49 of round 1.

UFC Career

Florian returned to the UFC octagon at UFC Fight Night 1. Florian faced fellow TUF 1 castmember, Alex Karalexis at welterweight and defeated Karalexis via TKO (cuts) after he landed a vicious "hellbow" to Karalexis's nose.

Florian returned at The Ultimate Fighter 2 Finale against highly decorated muay thai practioner, Kit Cope. Florian used his vastly superior BJJ to give Cope fits on the ground. At the end of round 1, Florian latched onto an arm bar that had Cope tapping. However, as the bell rang to signify the end of round a split second before Cope tapped, the fight was allowed to continue into the second round. A clearly hurt Cope came out for round 2 with only one arm to defend himself. Florian quickly took advantage of the oppurtunity as he once again took Cope to the ground where he quickly transitioned to a rear naked choke that forced the tap at .27 of round 2.

Seven months later, Florian headlined The Ultimate Fighter 3 Finale as a lightweight against Canadian, Sam Stout. Florian clearly proved to be a much improved fighter since his stint on TUF and made quick work of Stout, submitting him with a rear naked choke a mere 1.46 into round 1.

With a 5-2 professional record, Florian was offered the oppurtunity to face Sean Sherk for the newly re-instated, vacant UFC lightweight title at UFC 64. Florian was competitive in the fight but little else as he was unable to defend the vast majority of Sherk's takedowns. He managed to cut Sherk with one of his patented elbows from his back in the second round as well as land a few kicks standing but he simply did not have enough tools to defeat Sherk who went on to take the unanimous five round decision and the UFC lightweight belt.

A much improved Florian returned at UFC Fight Night 9 against Dokonjonosuke Mishima. Florian showed improved all around skills as he eventually finished Mishima in the third round via rear naked choke.

At UFC 73, Florian faced UFC virgin, Alvin Robinson whom he battered with strikes from the mount position until he submitted.

A little over two months later, Florian replaced Spencer Fisher in the headline bout of UFC Fight Night 11 against Din Thomas. Thomas suffered a knee injury in the first round which led to a mauling from Florian who eventually submitted Thomas with a rear naked choke.

Taking a slight break, Florian returned to competition seven months later when he headlined the stacked, UFC Fight Night 13 against TUF 5 semi finalist, Joe Lauzon. A close first round, was followed by a round which was dominated by Florian who mounted his opponent and rained down strikes for a good few minutes before the referee halted the bout.

At UFC 87, Florian faced Roger Huerta in a high profile lightweight encounter. The fight proved to be fairly one-sided as Florian's calculated approach was too much for the overly aggressive Huerta. Florian outpointed Huerta en route to a unanimous decision victory.

Riding a five fight win streak, Florian returned in a lightweight no.1 contender match at UFC 91: Couture vs. Lesnar against TUF 2 welterweight winner, Joe Stevenson. In an extremely impressive performance, Florian showed the improvement of his all around game as he dominated the striking exchanges before using his wrestling to slam Stevenson to the mat before moving to mount and then the back, finally sinking in a deep rear naked choke that had the recently crowned BJJ black belt submitting quickly.

Florian immediately called UFC lightweight champion, BJ Penn out in the post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, stating that he was going to "kill the master". The two should meet sometime in 2009.