Well, here we are now. It’s time for us to reflect on the
amazing, yet very disappointing career of Kenny “Kenflo” Florian.
He entered The Ultimate Fighter with an unimpressive record
of 2-1, riding a split decision loss to submission specialist, Drew Fickett.
Dana and Joe saw something else though, they saw a fighter that had the
potential to be something. The season was featuring middleweights and light
heavyweights. Let’s just say that Kenny was very undersized at middleweight.
Despite this, he destroyed Leben with a 2nd round TKO and received a
1st round TKO from Diego Sanchez in the Finale.
He then decided to take it down a notch, specifically 15
notches. He dominated both Alex Karalexis and Kit Cope and once again dropped
down another weight class. He found 155 lbs. to be his home. This statement was
very clear when he beat out the always-entertaining Sam Stout with another
dominating performance, a 1st round RNC. Riding a 3-fight win
streak, he met Sean Sherk in the lightweight title fight for the vacant belt.
This was the first title shot.
He came up short in a bloody unanimous decision loss to “The
muscle shark” but didn’t fail to impress. He followed his loss with a new
dedication and finished the next 5 out of 6 fights with the one decision
against Roger Huerta. He received another title shot, this time against one of
the best of all time, BJ Penn. Kenny has been one of my favorite fighters ever
since I found interest in this sport (which has been a fairly short time) and
have never liked Penn’s attitude. To say the least, I was cheering for Florian
to win this fight more than I do for most fights. The fight wasn’t the most
exciting, but Kenny was arguably ahead on the scorecards against Penn, but Penn
was eventually the victor via 4th round RNC.
It was a heartbreaking loss for Kenny; he receives a second
chance at a title, and fails. Not many people receive one title shot let alone
two. It was disappointing, but you can’t take anything away from Kenny, he lost
to one of the best ever.
Kenny returned, though, as one of the most impressive
fighters I have ever seen. His performances against Clay Guida and Takanori
Gomi are the performances of one of the top pound for pound fighters. Clay
Guida was one of the top guys in that weight class and Kenny Picked him apart
with beautiful jabs, precise angles and counters, and eventually finishing the
fight after he hurt Guida, with an RNC. His fight with Gomi was much of the
same, actually, rather identical.
He was then in yet another title eliminator match, this time
against the horribly boring dominant Gray Maynard. Maynard continued the
dominance by dismantling Kenny in front of his hometown. It was sad, especially
being there.
Now, all the things that I have been saying Kenny have been
partly bitter, but I didn’t go into depth about all the really good stuff he
has done.
The reason why? There were simply too many amazing
performances of his to talk about them all.
He was apart of the project that saved the sport of MMA,
received 3 title shots (and did a good job in all of those), and is a perfect
representation of the sport. He is articulate, extremely smart, and very
charismatic. In my opinion, you
don’t have to become a champion to get a vote for the hall of fame. I believe
having the type of career in which you receive three title shots, not only warrants a HoF slot, but also deserves
legendary status.
He fought at 4 different weight classes, continues to
sponsor the sport as one of the main faces on TV as an analyst and commentator.
Kenny was one of the most entertaining fighters in UFC
history. We will never forget him and all he has done for the sport.
Kenny will be a hall of famer.
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