VIDEO | Kenny Florian gets put to sleep in grappling match

Over the weekend, UFC veteran and The Ultimate Fighter season 1 competitor Kenny Florian took to the mats to compete at the Abu Dhabi World Pro Championship 2017. Unfortunately, his latest trip into the grappling realm did not go as planned.

Florian’s opponent in Abu Dhabi was Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro, a decorated grappler who also competed for a time in mixed martial arts. Shaolin was able to win this one quickly, putting Florian to sleep just one minute into the contest. See Shaolin’s impressive choke of Florian, in full, at the top of this post.

Now retired from mixed martial arts, the 40-year-old Florian currently makes his living as an analyst and commentator for Fox Sports. He also has a podcast with fellow Fox personality Jon Anik.

Over the course of his MMA career, Florian challenged for three UFC titles. First, he battled Sean Sherk for the lightweight title. Then, he challenged our own BJ Penn for the lightweight title. Then, in a fight that would go down as the last of his long career, Florian took on Jose Aldo for the featherweight title. Unfortunately for Florian and his fans, he would not succeed in any of these title fights, thereby failing to ever earn UFC gold.

Vitor Shaolin was last seen in the cage in 2010, when he lost a decision to Justin Wilcox under the Strikeforce banner. Over the course of his career, the grappling specialist competed in leagues like Dream,  K-1 Hero’s, Shooto, and Cage Rage, where he defeated the likes of Eddie Yagin, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Ivan Menjivar, Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen, Eiji Mitsuoka and Kazuyuki Miyata. He retired from mixed martial arts with an impressive 20-5 overall record.

What do you think of Florian’s submission loss? Are you impressed by Vitor Shaolin’s latest win on the mats? Sound off, PENN Nation!

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/23/2017.