If Diego “The Gun” Nunes isn’t a gamer, I don’t know of any fighter that qualifies as a gamer.He delivered a 15-minute walk through fire for Mike Brown at UFC 125, he’s one of the few guys that admits he would not duck his teammates, especially since o…
If Diego “The Gun” Nunes isn’t a gamer, I don’t know of any fighter that qualifies as a gamer.
He delivered a 15-minute walk through fire for Mike Brown at UFC 125, he’s one of the few guys that admits he would not duck his teammates, especially since one of his teammates, Jose “Scarface” Aldo, holds the throne, scepter, cape and crown in the UFC Featherweight division, and on top of all of that, he gets an exciting veteran in Kenny Florian on Saturday.
Florian is a skilled fighter with technical punches, a good Muay Thai game that we have not seen in a while—mind you, he has not fought since UFC 118—and some excellent jiu-jitsu that he can use in the wink of an eye, but he’s going up against a vicious Nak Muay in Nunes.
Like Florian, Nunes has a notable Muay Thai game, and he incoporates his Brazilian jiu-jitsu into his fighting style, and if he wants to beat Kenny Florian at UFC 131, he must implement his striking game early on Florian.
If he gives Florian a chance to land any of his clean punches, he will eventually find himself backpedaling and close to getting finished by Florian, and if he lets Florian take him down at will, he’ll be inviting Florian to end his win streak and his UFC stint quite early.
From the opening bell, he should be looking to hit Kenny with everything from leg kicks on the outside to elbows against the cage, wearing Florian down and gassing him out until he’s primed and ready to have his night shut down by force due to any weapon in Nunes’ arsenal.
If the fight goes into Kenny’s world, no problem for Nunes just as long as he’s patient and capitalizes on any opportunity to do damage to Florian on the ground—and Kenny does have a weakness on the ground if he’s against someone that can effectively control him and neutralize his BJJ game, which Nunes is.
Kenny Florian is no slouch, but he’ll find out the hard way that Diego Nunes was the guy Florian should’ve ducked when he dropped to featherweight, and if Florian needs a reason why he should’ve ducked Nunes, Nunes will give him a few reasons and then some this Saturday.
Weigh-ins for UFC 131 are kicking off today at 5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT, at the Jack Poole Plaza in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Check out streaming video of the festivities after the jump, courtesy of the UFC. We’ll plug in the weight totals below the video player after things wrap up. How emaciated will Kenny Florian be at 145? Will Shane Carwin have the same beastly intimidation factor now that he’s slimmed down below the 265-pound limit? What does Vagner Rocha look like, anyway? All will be revealed…
Weigh-ins for UFC 131 are kicking off today at 5 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. PT, at the Jack Poole Plaza in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Check out streaming video of the festivities after the jump, courtesy of the UFC. We’ll plug in the weight totals below the video player after things wrap up. How emaciated will Kenny Florian be at 145? Will Shane Carwin have the same beastly intimidation factor now that he’s slimmed down below the 265-pound limit? What does Vagner Rocha look like, anyway? All will be revealed…
MAIN CARD
Junior dos Santos (239) vs. Shane Carwin (254)
Kenny Florian (146) vs. Diego Nunes (145)
Demian Maia (186) vs. Mark Munoz (186)
Jon Olav Einemo (261) vs. Dave Herman (233)
Donald Cerrone (155) vs. Vagner Rocha (155)
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Jesse Bongfeldt (185) vs. Chris Weidman (186)
Yves Edwards (155) vs. Sam Stout (155)
FACEBOOK/YOUTUBE PRELIMS
Krzysztof Soszynski (205) vs. Mike Massenzio (201)
Nick Ring (185) vs. James Head (186)
Dustin Poirier (146) vs. Jason Young (145)
Joey Beltran (247) vs. Aaron Rosa (261)
Michihiro Omigawa (145) vs. Darren Elkins (145)
Filed under: UFCVANCOUVER, British Columbia – As the smell of hot dogs cooking on the street above wafted through Robson Square during Thursday afternoon’s press conference, Kenny Florian’s face seemed to betray the slightest quiver of agony.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – As the smell of hot dogs cooking on the street above wafted through Robson Square during Thursday afternoon’s press conference, Kenny Florian‘s face seemed to betray the slightest quiver of agony.
After what he’s been through just to get down to yet another weight class in his UFC career, it had to feel like just one more twist of the knife into his empty stomach.
As he made clear during the media workouts the day before, the cut to 145 pounds for the first time in his career requires no small amount of sacrifice and suffering. Fortunately, he’s maintained a sense of humor in the face of starvation.
“The skinny jeans I was wearing before, now are big on me,” Florian joked on Wednesday. “I’ve got to get a whole new wardrobe.”
After beginning his career as a middleweight, Florian now finds himself just a day away from making his featherweight debut at UFC 131. It will be the fourth weight class he’s fought in while under contract with the UFC, but even for his resilient frame, 145 pounds seems like it might be a bit of a stretch.
This cut has been, as Florian put it, “a test of discipline.” It required him to start early and adhere strictly to a brand new diet – one with lots of chicken breasts, vegetables, and, tragically, absolutely no pizza.
“That’s the thing I miss most,” he said. “I haven’t had bread for a long time.”
Whether all the suffering was worth it, we’ll find out soon enough.
At Thursday’s pre-fight press conference Dana White declined to say whether the winner of Florian’s bout with Diego Nunes will get a title shot – “We’ll see,” the UFC president said, after prodding from a fan – but White did go out of his way to make one thing clear: this is an important fight for both men.
“[Nunes is] a great fighter…16-1. He’s just coming off a win over Mike Brown, so this is a big fight for both guys. Obviously this is Kenny’s first fight at 145. He wants to win this fight and work his way in the division. If [Nunes] can beat Kenny, it’s big.”
And while Florian admitted that making 145 pounds has proven much harder than anything he’s done as a fighter before, he also swears that the strict diet has paid off in other ways.
“This has been the best training camp by far in my life,” he said. “I know that’s kind of the quote to say with every fighter, but it truly has been. And I’ll be a hundred percent honest and say I didn’t expect it to be. I thought I was going to be real low on energy. I thought it was going to be a brutal last month, and the funny thing is I’ve gotten stronger and better, and in my sparring and my strength and conditioning, I’ve been killing it. I’m real happy. There’s no doubt about it, it has to do with the nutrition. I haven’t felt this good preparing for my fights at [1]55, let alone [1]45.”
The real moment of truth will come not just at Friday’s weigh-in – where Florian hinted that he might further enrage the rabid Vancouver crowd by sporting the black and gold of his hometown Boston Bruins – but also on fight night, when he’ll have to prove that he didn’t leave his best stuff on the scale in a desperate attempt to make weight.
He wouldn’t be the first fighter to cut away some of his strength and explosiveness along with the extra pounds. But thanks to his nutritionist, George Lockhart, Florian said he’s on track to make the weight without an excruciating final push.
“The schedule that we’re on, we should probably be cutting less weight than I have for my last four or five fights at 155. That’s the game plan, anyway. We’ll see if we can get there. I’m hoping that we can do it, and I think we can. I think it’s going to be less than what I’ve cut in the past, which is good. At [1]55, you get a little lazy sometimes.”
Against Nunes, Florian faces an opponent who has only lost once in seventeen fights, and that via decision. It’s certainly not an easy introduction into a new weight class, and if Florian isn’t ready, he knows it will be painfully evident.
“I’m expecting a very, very tough fight from Diego Nunes. He’s never not given someone a tough fight. His one loss, I thought he played a poor strategy. He could have won that fight. I could be very well going against an undefeated fighter here. He’s still 16-1, trains out of one of the best camps in the world, trains alongside Jose Aldo. He’s going to be a fast, dangerous striker and a guy who’s hard to put away. He’s never been finished in his career, so I expect him to be there strong for all fifteen minutes.”
As for Florian, his test starts Friday afternoon when he steps on the scales. And Bruins jersey or no, it might not be pretty, he said.
“I don’t think I’m going to look too good there, because I’m pretty thin already. But I’ll look somewhat like Christian Bale in “The Machinist.” There’s no doubt about it. I may be coming for that role.”
At UFC 131 this Saturday in Vancouver, perennial lightweight contender Kenny “Kenflo” Florian will fight in his first ever match at 145 pounds, a featherweight tilt vs. former WEC fighter Diego Nunes.It will be Florian’s UFC-record fo…
At UFC 131 this Saturday in Vancouver, perennial lightweight contender Kenny “Kenflo” Florian will fight in his first ever match at 145 pounds, a featherweight tilt vs. former WEC fighter Diego Nunes.
It will be Florian’s UFC-record fourth weight class, after previously competing at 185, 170 and 155 pounds.
Florian decided to drop down in weight for a number of reasons. First, the UFC’s lightweight division was becoming crowded with the WEC merger, especially with the addition of contenders like Ben Henderson and Anthony Pettis.
With the division getting clogged up in talent, Florian’s place in it was becoming unclear.
Second, after losing to Gray Maynard at UFC 118 in a No. 1 contender’s bout, Florian was all but assured a career as a 155-pound gatekeeper, especially after Dana White said he “choked” in big fights.
Florian, after all, had two cracks at the lightweight title previously, losing to Sean Sherk at UFC 64 and B.J. Penn at UFC 101.
And third, Florian dropped down for the challenge to satisfy his inner desire to become a champion.
Although he remains adamant he wants to be the lightweight champion one day, chances are that opportunity has passed him by. So he has set his eyes on the Jose Aldo’s 145-pound belt instead.
Although it isn’t set in stone, Florian may very well be next in line to Aldo’s strap. On a fairly recent episode of “MMA Live,” Florian (an analyst on the show) asked White if he would get a title shot were he to dispatch Nunes, to which White replied, “probably.”
It does make sense.
The featherweight division is shallow, as Florian is already the most recognizable fighter in it, even though he hasn’t fought at the weight yet. With Florian’s name value, the UFC could potentially promote Florian and Aldo as the main event on a pay-per-view.
The other thing is, there aren’t many contenders at 145 pounds right now. With the unbeaten Chad Mendes hooking up with Rani Yahya, the No. 1 contender’s spot is up for grabs.
If Florian can defeat the 16-1 Nunes—who, by the way, is Aldo’s teammate—he would be more than deserving. But that’s a big if.
Nunes is no walk in the park. Down on the scorecards to former WEC featherweight champion Mike Brown in his UFC debut back in January, Nunes battled back with a busted-up eye to win a split decision.
His excellent kickboxing skills and stellar Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu make him one of the top dogs in the world at 145 pounds.
Florian is walking into dangerous territory this weekend. Should he defeat Nunes, he will likely get the next title shot. But if he loses, his career will be sent into limbo.
Not good enough to contend at 145 or 155 pounds, and already 35 years old, Florian would need to seriously rethink his MMA career should he fall to Nunes.
This is his last shot.
Florian’s career will be made or broken with his weight cut at UFC 131.
The UFC makes its way back to the True North this Saturday as UFC 131 takes place live from Vancouver, British Columbia. The card will be headlined by two of MMA’s most dangerous strikers, Junior dos Santos and Shane Carwin. It will also feature …
The UFC makes its way back to the True North this Saturday as UFC 131 takes place live from Vancouver, British Columbia.
The card will be headlined by two of MMA’s most dangerous strikers, Junior dos Santos and Shane Carwin. It will also feature Kenny Florien making his featherweight debut against Diego Nunes.
Originally the card was supposed to feature former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar. Lesnar was forced to pull out due to another bout with diverticulitis.
Despite the loss of Lesnar, expect the card to be an exciting show. Here are my predictions for submission, KO and fight of the night.
If you missed the UFC 131 countdown show last night, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
Of noting is that the UFC enlisted the help of former WWE writer Paul Heyman to help produce the Camp Carwin segments of the show, which he was likely hired for when it was supposed to be his pal Brock Lesnar fighting dos Santos. It’s likely no coincidence, though that Carwin seemed to have a lot more contrived soundbites than usual like, “I’ve wrestled since I was six years old. These hands are meant to get ahold of people. I get ahold of Junior dos Santos, the fight’s over.”
(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)
If you missed the UFC 131 countdown show last night, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.
Of noting is that the UFC enlisted the help of former WWE writer Paul Heyman to help produce the Camp Carwin segments of the show, which he was likely hired for when it was supposed to be his pal Brock Lesnar fighting dos Santos. It’s likely no coincidence, though that Carwin seemed to have a lot more contrived soundbites than usual like, “I’ve wrestled since I was six years old. These hands are meant to get ahold of people. I get ahold of Junior dos Santos, the fight’s over.”
The highlight may be Georges St-Pierre’s attempt at sarcastic humor, when he tells the camera that “Kenny [Florian] is a fool. I even don’t like him. I don’t know why he’s coming here. I despise him.” This may be as close as we ever see GSP trash talking someone, so we’ll take whatever we’ll get.
If Diego “The Gun” Nunes isn’t a gamer, I don’t know of any fighter that qualifies as a gamer.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – As the smell of hot dogs cooking on the street above wafted through Robson Square during Thursday afternoon’s press conference,