Kenny Florian's Statement re: Ultimate Fight Night

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The following was posted by Kenny Florian on jiujitsugear.com's message board. I had already posted it in the MMA forum but thought you guys may appreciate reading it here.

Leading up to the fight was filled with problems but I thought I did a good job of concentrating on the fight considering everything. A month before the fight I smashed my knuckle on my right hand in an accident which kept me from punching or grabbing with my right hand for a while. I injured my shoulder pretty bad, my shin, my toes and badly over trained for this fight leading to tremendous fatigue in the 2 weeks before the fight. I had to take a bunch of time off from conditioning and training because I was just so fatigued during training. I was training too hard, too early and just hit a wall. People warned me that I was training too much but I was too focused on winning to listen to my body. I then almost lost all my sponsors and my money before my fight. On top of this, the day of my fight, my mother had an accident while she was in Vegas with my Dad and both of them ended up in the emergency room instead of watching my fight at the Cox Pavilion. With all of this, I stayed focused on what I had to do and was able to stay calm before, during and after the fight. I was determined to not have another bad performance.

My goal was to put on a good show and I wanted to bring the fight to my opponent. I wanted to have an exciting fight and wanted to strike with him and knew I could use a takedown as a last resort if need be. I stayed with simple combinations and they were working for me. I thought I was going to get the win with that kick to the body and wasted some gas trying to finish him off as I got a little too excited. Alex told me after the fight, he could not breathe for 30-40 seconds and that was the most painful thing he has experienced in fighting. That just shows how freakin tough that kid is. I thought I was very successful with the thai clinch and I knew I was getting him concerned and hurting him with the knees to the body so I wanted to work the body and then go upstairs with the kick.

One thing that got me concerned was when we would trade punches, he was headbutting me (not because he did it on purpose) due to him being shorter and me rushing in. It threw me off and was causing me to lift my chin up after that. He smashed me in the face with his head 3 times and I felt it once pretty bad.

I thought I handled the 1st round pretty easily, his best shot landed at the end after the bell rang and my hands were down. I got tired going into the 2nd round after the takedown. Alex was claiming I was twisting his fingers as I tried to get out and Cecil was asking if I was ok and then threatening to DQ me for twisting the fingers. The choke was uncomfortable but not close at all so I just chose to wait there to avoid Cecil from doing something crazy again so I got lazy with my positioning and allowed him back up. This pissed me off seeing the fight again. The last flurry before the elbow was not a problem. He never hit me solid once. They were all grazing blows. I knew I could not trade with him inside due to his short arms and good hooks so I just covered up and threw the elbow instead of punches that I like to throw and knew it was over after. The elbow cut him and broke his nose. A lot of people think they know how to throw elbows but have no idea how it should be done. Cutting opponent
 
k flo has a good head on his shoulders and i hope he continues to do well
 
They may not be intended as such, but the "why I wasn't as good as I should be" excuses don't come across very well. Especially since I recall a bunch from last time he fought as well (iirc it was his brother making the excuses then, not Kenny). Take away that 2nd paragraph and the rest comes across pretty well though. Looking forward to seeing him after he has developed a little more and at the right weight class.
 
Too many "ifs" & "buts", saying that, it is nice to see a modest & honest fighter analyse his fight rather than some of the old cocky smack talk we often see.
 
Honestly, that was a helluva long post, and I didn't see the show and didn't find out from that diatribe who won.

So who won? Maybe he says, but I missed it if he included it.

Kenny needs to edit his posts so that he doesn't appear to be making so many excuses or criticisms of his opponent.
 
Florian nailed Karalexis with an elbow that broke his nose and opened a huge cut which stopped the fight.
 
TheHighlander - thank you. Have a nice tall ale on my, brother.
 
I don't see any excuses in his post. His attitude seems to be, "Well, I wanted to do some more things, but my opponent stopped me from executing them, but I stopped him from executing some of his stuff, and after a tough battle I came out on top."
 
I don't see any excuses in his post. His attitude seems to be, "Well, I wanted to do some more things, but my opponent stopped me from executing them, but I stopped him from executing some of his stuff, and after a tough battle I came out on top."
 
So you think it's normal to list every injury and distraction? No pro goes into a fight injury free and 100% focused, but the best learn to deal with both.
 
TheHighlander is totally correct. Kenny didn't need to list all the reasons why he might not have been at his best.
 
he will be goo din the future, dont understand why every body is so concerned with standing up and giving a good show, it seems lots of guys are giving up on the ground game in favor of a stand up battle to please fans. i like ground fighting and a lot of fans do. screw the ones that boo the ground work and put them on the mat with me, i will show them what its about
 
I thought it was a good fight and I look forward to watching them both fight again.
 
damn, didnt get to wathc his fight. when he threw his elbow, was it standing or on the ground?
 
phenomfan1529 said:
damn, didnt get to wathc his fight. when he threw his elbow, was it standing or on the ground?


a really fast standing elbow. its a pretty good fight
 
I am with you guardpasser. lets see the ground games!!
 
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