Kenny Florian News

Fernando Quiles - June 16, 2020

Cynthia Calvillo may have knocked off the number one ranked UFC women’s flyweight but Kenny Florian feels a title shot is too soon. Calvillo is coming off what is considered to be the most important win of her pro MMA career. For the first time during her run with the UFC, Calvillo made the trip up to 125 pounds to take on Jessica Eye. Calvillo passed the test with flying colors, earning a unanimous decision win.

Fernando Quiles - February 18, 2020

Kenny Florian believes Michel Pereira has no one to blame but himself for being disqualified against Diego Sanchez. Pereira and Sanchez collided this past Saturday night (Feb. 15). The bout served as UFC Rio Rancho’s co-main event. While Pereira appeared to have easily snagged rounds one and two, he made a costly mistake in the final frame. Pereira landed an illegal knee on a downed Sanchez. The “Nightmare” said he was unable to continue and the fight was called off. Sanchez was awarded the DQ win.

Adam Martin - January 30, 2020

Former UFC title contender Kenny Florian says that he was nearly killed in a car accident in the United Kingdom on Thursday. Florian said that a massive truck nearly trapped the tiny car he was traveling underneath it, and once they swerved out of the way they were hit by a large van. Florian credits the car’s driver, Paul Walker, for saving his life.

Fernando Quiles - December 18, 2019

Kenny Florian doesn’t see how the UFC can justify booking Henry Cejudo vs. Jose Aldo. Aldo made his bantamweight debut this past Saturday night (Dec. 14). He shared the Octagon with Marlon Moraes on the main card of UFC 245 in Las Vegas. The bout went the distance and Moraes was awarded the split nod. While some argue that Aldo should’ve emerged victorious, the fact remains that the former featherweight kingpin lost the fight.

Tom Taylor - September 26, 2019

Yair Rodriguez has found himself in a bit of hot water after his UFC Mexico fight with Jeremy Stephens ended with an inadvertent eye-poke. The latest member of the MMA community to speak out against Rodriguez’s controversial post-fight actions is UFC analyst Kenny Florian. “I didn’t like the fact that Yair Rodriguez was kind of insinuating to the crowd in a lot of ways that maybe Jeremy didn’t wanna continue fighting and all that stuff,” Florian said on the latest episode of the Anik & Florian podcast (via MMA News). “Which kind of incited the crowd, right? I mean these guys wanted to see a fight. I thought that was in poor taste. I don’t know if he was thinking things through all the way. I think he was frustrated by the situation. And I certainly don’t think he did this intentionally either. I don’t think he tried to scratch his eye intentionally either, obviously.”

Fernando Quiles - September 20, 2019

Kenny Florian sees Jeremy Stephens getting his hand raised over Yair Rodriguez. Tomorrow night (Sept. 21), Stephens and Rodriguez will share the Octagon. The featherweight bout is set to headline UFC Mexico City. The action will be held inside Mexico City Arena. Earlier today, the weigh-ins took place and just one fighter failed to hit the target weight.

Fernando Quiles - September 4, 2019

Kenny Florian thinks Rose Namajunas and Joanna Jedrzejczyk have a good chance at giving Weili Zhang problems. Zhang made history at UFC Shenzhen. She defeated Jessica Andrade via TKO in 42 seconds to capture the UFC strawweight title. This makes Zhang the first UFC champion born in China.

Natasha Hooper - September 3, 2019

Kenny Florian believes Daniel Cormier should retire after losing his heavyweight title to Stipe Miocic at UFC 241. The former UFC two-division champ ‘DC’ put his heavyweight belt on the line in a rematch against Miocic. The pair first fought at UFC 226 in 2018 when Cormier knocked Miocic out in round one. However, the second time around, Cormier lost via TKO in the fourth.

Fernando Quiles - August 14, 2019

Kenny Florian believes that Paulo Costa is not ready for a middleweight the caliber of Yoel Romero. Ready or not, Costa will indeed go one-on-one with “The Soldier of God” (see pros picks here) this Saturday night (Aug. 17). The bout will take place on the main card of UFC 241. The action will be held inside the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Fernando Quiles - August 5, 2019

Kenny Florian doesn’t think he has all the answers, but he still feels many lightweights have repeated a mistake against Khabib Nurmagomedov. Nurmagomedov has been flawless in his professional mixed martial arts career. The UFC lightweight champion holds a perfect 27-0 record. He’s beaten the likes of Conor McGregor, Rafael dos Anjos, Edson Barboza, Al Iaquinta, and more. “The Eagle” is set for a title unification bout against interim champion Dustin Poirier at UFC 242 on Sept. 7.

Fernando Quiles - July 19, 2019

Former UFC fighter Kenny Florian has made a prediction for Greg Hardy vs. Juan Adams. Hardy vs. Adams is a highly-anticipated grudge match set for tomorrow night (July 20). The heavyweight tilt will be featured on the main card of UFC San Antonio. The action airs live on the major ESPN Network.

Fernando Quiles - July 8, 2019

Former UFC fighter Kenny Florian praises Jorge Masvidal for taking a big risk and having it pay off. It’s not often that fighters at the highest of levels in mixed martial arts start a fight by charging at their opponent. Not since the late Kid Yamamoto did it back in 2006 have we seen an elite MMA fighter pull it off to almost instant success. That’s exactly what Masvidal did when he iced Ben Askren with a flying knee in just five seconds at UFC 239.

Drake Riggs - January 10, 2018

Every now and then, we get some fun little segments on the UFC’s weekly news program on FS1, UFC Tonight. The show is normally hosted by Karyn Bryant, Kenny Florian and UFC Light Heavyweight champion, Daniel Cormier. Often times, Cormier will have to miss time due to his fight camps which then leads to a rotation of other fighters filling in for him, most commonly the likes of Welterweight champion, Tyron Woodley or former Middleweight champion, Michael Bisping. This week the crew discussed who they thought would return to the action first between Lightweight champion, Conor McGregor or his biggest rival, Nate Diaz. This led to a hilarious and pretty accurate impression from the three-time title challenger.

Justin Golightly - December 21, 2017

No matter how many times we say it, it never sounds less crazy. Georges St-Pierre really did come back after four years away from the UFC and take a belt in a higher weight class. Honestly, he could walk away from the sport just like he vacated the title and no one could question his career. If he does decide to stay and finish out the last three fights on his contract, there simply aren’t a lot of huge options for the former two-division champion. Kenny Florian recently gave his insight on what St-Pierre’s next moves could be and there is no question they’d have to be giant fights. “I think [Georges St-Pierre] who has done it all in this sport, and I think if there’s one guy who deserves the super fight or a mega fight, it’s GSP. And talk about a guy who was old school, who did it the old fashion way of just clearly beating anyone and everyone. He wasn’t a guy who was going, ‘Oh, well this guy, he doesn’t promote himself enough so I’m not gonna fight Jon Fitch, or I’m not gonna fight Josh Koscheck, or I’m not gonna fight,’ he would just fight whoever the hell it was, whoever the UFC had for him is who he would face. So I think that he does deserve a mega fight. […] As far as asking or demanding a fight with Conor McGregor, I don’t think you’ll ever hear it from GSP because being a guy who was bullied when he was a kid, he feels like that’s kind of a bully mentality. You know, you don’t try to pick a fight with someone smaller than you, that’s kind of what has been GSP’s mentality.”

Drake Riggs - December 14, 2017

Retired UFC fighter, Kenny “KenFlo” Florian has been one of the UFC’s top analysts and one of the hosts of Fox Sports 1’s weekly UFC news program, UFC Tonight since it’s birth back in 2012 on Fuel TV. Florian retired from MMA in 2012 after a loss the year prior to Featherweight champion, Jose Aldo. This would be Florian’s third career UFC title shot in which he came up short in. Since then, the third-degree black belt in BJJ, Florian has done just about everything one can for the UFC other than fighting and has even competed in some Jiu-Jitsu tournaments since and runs his own training center called the Florian Martial Arts Center in Brookline, Massachusetts. On this week’s edition of UFC Tonight, when asked specifically whether or not he and guest host, UFC Welterweight champion, Tyron Woodley believed that UFC Lightweight champion, Conor McGregor should be stripped of his title due to inactivity, this is what they each had to say:

Tom Taylor - November 7, 2017

Now that Georges St-Pierre owns the UFC middleweight title, many fans are wondering what’s next for him. While UFC President Dana White has assured it’ll be a title-unifying showdown with interim middleweight champion Robert Whittaker, that’s certainly not the Canadian’s only option. One of the more compelling choices on St-Pierre’s menu is UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor, who he could meet at welterweight. In the eyes of former fighter Kenny Florian, however, this probably wouldn’t be a very competitive contest.

Justin Golightly - August 17, 2017

UFC on Fox analyst and color commentator Kenny Florian has been around the block a few times. He may have never won a title, but he spent six years fighting the best the UFC had to offer, including our own BJ Penn. Before that, he was grappling dangerous dudes all over the mats at the highest levels. In other words, the guy knows fighting. You’ve heard him talk in bits and pieces before about Conor McGregor and his upcoming boxing bout iwth Floyd Mayweather on UFC Tonight, but he recently got a chance to say a lot more to the guys at Submission Radio. “I give Conor about a 10 percent chance. I would love for him to knock out Floyd Mayweather. I think that it would be yet another milestone for our sport, I think it puts us on the map that much more, I think it gives us that much more respect, but it is an extremely, extremely tall task for Conor McGregor who has never competed in pro boxing to go against one of the best boxers of all time and beat him. Can he knock him out? Yes, absolutely, it is combat, anything can happen. But I still think Floyd is going to win that fight.[…] You know, there have been some amazing upsets in sports history, this could be another one of them. But when I look at the stats, when I look at the approaches, when I look at the way that Mayweather fights compared with the way Conor fights, yeah, Floyd should win every single time.”

Russell Ess - June 22, 2017

If there is one aspect of the fight game that Floyd Mayweather may fall short against Conor McGregor, it’s the trash talk. “The Notorious” is sharp, witty, and well, often times predicts the future. Although Mayweather is no stranger to the hype game or building his buzz through character, McGregor is definitely one of the best in the business.