Kenny Florian News

Adam D Martin - March 23, 2021

Former UFC lightweight title challenger Kenny Florian is taking his talents to the PFL commentary booth for the promotion’s third season. Florian, arguably one of the most popular fighters in UFC history, formerly called fights in the Octagon but left the UFC commentary booth a few years ago. He has continued to host the “Anik and Florian” podcast alongside current UFC mic man Jon Anik, as well as provide commentary for the BattleBots television show. But Florian’s calling has always been the fight game, and ahead of PFL’s third season, the promotion has brought him on to call fights. He will do so alongside UFC Hall of Fame Randy Couture and Sean O’Connell.

Fernando Quiles Jr. - July 16, 2020

Add Kenny Florian to the long list of individuals who believe Max Holloway should’ve been given the nod in his rematch with Alex Volkanovski. Holloway looked to avenge his Dec. 2019 UFC featherweight title loss to Volkanovski. “Blessed” and “The Great” collided a second time in the co-main event of UFC 251 on July 11. After five rounds of action, Holloway fell short via split decision. It was a controversial decision that even UFC president Dana White didn’t agree with.

Fernando Quiles Jr. - 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 Jr. - 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.

Fernando Quiles Jr. - 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.

Fernando Quiles Jr. - November 22, 2019

Kenny Florian has a feeling that Colby Covington will get the job done against Kamaru Usman. On Dec. 14, Covington will challenge Usman for the UFC welterweight championship. The 170-pound title bout will take place inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’ll serve as UFC 245’s main event.

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 Jr. - 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.

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.

Tom Taylor - August 22, 2019

So far, nobody has been able to solve the Khabib Nurmagomedov puzzle. 27 fighters have tried — including monsters like Conor McGregor, Al Iaquinta, Edson Barboza, Rafael dos Anjos and Michael Johnson — but none have been able to beat the Dagestani juggernaut.

Fernando Quiles Jr. - 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 Jr. - 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 Jr. - 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 - May 10, 2018

The news that’s gotten most of the buzz lately is that of a potential Nate Diaz vs Georges St-Pierre fight in which Dana White confirmed is what he would like to add to UFC 227 in Los Angeles, California on August 4th. While the fight between the former two-division UFC champion and The Ultimate Fighter season 5 winner has yet to be made official, the news alone of it being in the works has confused people to an extent. One of which being a close friend and former training partner of GSP’s at TriStar, retired UFC veteran turned analyst, Kenny Florian.

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.”

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 30, 2017

It’s finally over. Conor McGregor did his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather. Sure, he lost but everyone involved in that mega fight all came out as winners. McGregor walked away with just a black eye and $30 million just for his fight purse. He still stands to earn much more from sponsors and PPV numbers. While he won’t be able to take that extreme of a pay day back to the UFC with him, he could be able to use his new skills to improve his MMA game. That’s what Kenny Florian thinks at least. Florian spoke about what he expects from McGregor for his UFC return and who he thinks that Conor will fight. “I think Conor [McGregor] is going to learn so much from this. He’s going to come back to mixed martial arts I think even sharper, even stronger mentally, stronger physically. He’s going to be an absolute beast because there’s so many lessons that you can take away from fighting a composed and clean fighter like Mayweather.”