UFC 131 Fight Card Features Kenny Florian Moving Down To Featherweight, Is A Title Shot In His Future?
Kenny Florian makes his featherweight debut at UFC 131 against Diego Nunes. He has been a successful lightweight for years, but this move provides his best chance to get into title contention. In fact, one win could very well set him up for a fight with Jose Aldo later on this year.
From Sherdog.com:
“I think if you look at what I’ve done at 155 and what I’ve done in my career, bringing the skills and the experience that I have … beating a guy in the top five in the world, yeah, I think that puts me in line for a shot right away,” Florian said recently during an interview on the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show. “Who knows? We’ll see. I think it definitely does.”
Florian has an advantage that a lot of fighters don’t have. Since he has been fighting for UFC for years, the organization is familiar with him as a fighter. This means that he won’t have to work as hard to impress the management in order to vault up to championship contender.
The lightweight division is so crowded with contenders right now that this move is the smartest thing that Florian could do. He is 35, which means he doesn’t have a lot of time left to compete at a high level.
If Florian is fortunate enough to come away from UFC 131, and he could thanks to terrific submission skills, he will be in the mix with Chad Mendes for a championship fight.
Given all that he has accomplished as a lightweight, there is no reason to think that he can’t win the featherweight championship if the opportunity should arise in the near future.