Kenny Florian recently talked about his time training with Georges St-Pierre and shared insight on the UFC Hall of Famer’s work ethic. In a new podcast documentary on St-Pierre by MMA TRUFAN, Florian talked about training with St-Pierre as a team member at Tristar Gym in Montreal. During that time he saw St-Pierre outwork virtually […]
Kenny Florian recently talked about his time training with Georges St-Pierre and shared insight on the UFC Hall of Famer’s work ethic. In a new podcast documentary on St-Pierre by MMA TRUFAN, Florian talked about training with St-Pierre as a team member at Tristar Gym in Montreal. During that time he saw St-Pierre outwork virtually everybody in the sport.
“I trained an incredible amount. I could not sustain, and I’ve never seen anybody been able to sustain the volume of training that Georges St-Pierre was able to do. You could do it for a few days and you could do it for maybe a week. But, I can’t tell you how many people have tried to do that and have actually left or failed in that process of trying to keep up with Georges St-Pierre. And that’s not something that Georges does for a week and then stops. He’s doing that week in and week out.”
“Now I think there was certainly a lot of overtraining that Georges St-Pierre did. I’m not saying it was a perfect process. But I’ve never seen anybody train more than Georges St-Pierre.”
Florian on GOAT
Florian explained how St-Pierre still trains regularly even though he has been officially retired since February of 2019. He also talked about where he thinks St-Pierre belongs on the list of the all-time greats in the sport.
“I’ve said this for a long time. Even when Anderson Silva was kind of touted as the GOAT, I always had Georges St-Pierre at the top of the list. Not only because of his consistency but also the quality of competition that he faced at the time. For me, that kind of consistency and also that kind of well-rounded martial arts skill is what stands out to me.”
Listen to the MMA TRUFAN documentary on Georges St-Pierre below.
Due to technical difficulties, Falling Action comes to you a day later than usual, and for that we apologize.
But as long as you haven’t pushed all recollection of UFC 131 out of your mind in order to make room for the beautiful new memories you made on Sunday and Monday – in other words, as long as you have greater brain capacity than a golden retriever – we figure most of you ought to still be able to enjoy a thorough discussion of this past weekend’s winners, losers, and everything in between.
Biggest Winner: Junior dos Santos
We knew the big Brazilian could box even before he turned Shane Carwin’s face into ground beef. What we (okay, I) wondered was, could he stay on his feet and out of the clinch enough to put those skills to work? Against former Division II national champion wrestler Carwin, the answer for dos Santos, much like it is for every question asked of the Kool-Aid Man, was: ohhhhh yeah. He picked Carwin apart with his jab and kept the fight at a safe distance (well, safe for him, extremely dangerous for Carwin). He even showed off some spiffy defensive wrestling on the few occasions where Carwin got in close enough to test him. UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez is quicker and more explosive than Carwin, so that will be a different kind of challenge, but dos Santos showed us on Saturday that he’s more than deserving of the shot. Now if only we didn’t have to go six months between major heavyweight fights, this division might actually get somewhere.
Biggest Loser: Shane Carwin
It was as gutsy a performance as you’ll ever see, and with it he proved that he has the cardio and the heart to go the distance. At the same time, the closest he came to being competitive in this fight was when he landed one solitary left hook that made JDS go wobbly, and even then he couldn’t get close enough to follow up. Carwin did the one thing he couldn’t afford to do in this fight, which was hang out at the end of dos Santos’ jab. He got into a boxing match with a superior boxer, and the results were about what you’d expect from such a strategy. Again, any man who can take that kind of a beating and still keep coming is so tough that he borders on being mentally ill, so give Carwin his props for that. At the same time, he’s 36 years old and in the past eleven months he’s lost one title shot and one no. 1 contender fight. It’s starting to look like that interim title might be the only UFC belt he’s ever going to own.
Most Impressive in Defeat: Demian Maia
The Maia of three years ago would have gone into the fight with Mark Munoz looking to pull half-guard right away just to avoid the terrifying world of stand-up fighting as much as possible. That Maia was very good at what he did, but he was also limited. In a losing effort against Munoz he showed that he’s a much more complete fighter now, and he’s only getting better. You could make the argument that he’s a little too content to fight on the feet these days, which leaves his best weapon – his submissions game – tragically under-used. I wouldn’t argue with that, and maybe neither would Maia. My hope is that what we’re seeing now is just the swing of the pendulum as his overall game evolves. Maybe this loss will convince him to find a better balance in the future.
Least Impressive in Victory: Krzysztof Soszynski
In fairness, Mike Massenzio didn’t give him much to work with, but what did we expect? Massenzio took a short-notice fight in the weight class above his own and Soszynski still couldn’t do much more to him than stuff his takedowns and try to set up an offense that came only in short, tentative bursts. True, Massenzio didn’t make for much of a dance partner, but if Soszynski can’t do more with a size advantage like that against a short-notice opponent, that’s a little troubling. He got the decision win, but didn’t bump his stock much higher in the process. Let’s hope his next opponent gives him more to work with.
Most Frightening: Yves Edwards
It wasn’t so much the punch that put him out, but the way he went down that made me cringe. The back of Edwards’ head thudded off the mat with a sickening sound and he lay there motionless for several minutes afterward. That always makes for an unnerving sight, but the 34-year-old Edwards is such a beloved character in this sport that it made it even tougher than usual to sit there and wait for him to show signs of recovery. Those kinds of knockouts are the scariest and probably the most dangerous. The blow Edwards took to the back of the head as a result of the fall seemed much worse and more damaging than the punch itself, and yet there was really nothing anyone could do to prevent it or soften the impact. The referee – or in this case, a compassionate opponent like Stout – can stop a fighter from taking needless punches after he’s out, but nobody can do anything about the effects of gravity on a suddenly unconscious man.
Most Surprising: Dave Herman
Giving up nearly thirty pounds to a monstrous jiu-jitsu specialist, all while claiming that jiu-jitsu “doesn’t work,” didn’t seem like a recipe for success. But to Herman’s credit he took Jon Olav Einemo’s best shots and gave back more than the big man could handle. Less surprising than Herman’s victory was just how fun the fight was to watch. It had so many ups and downs and ebbs and flows that it made eight minutes of fighting feel like twenty. Only, you know, in the good way. Enjoy your Fight of the Night bonus money, gentleman. You both earned it.
The ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’ Award: Kenny Florian
The move down to featherweight sounded like a pretty hellish, but business-savvy one for KenFlo. He saw the writing on the wall at lightweight and realized that if he didn’t want to turn into a gatekeeper, he needed to find a fresh start in a new division. The win over a very tough Diego Nunes at 145 pounds accomplished that. He has a new life as a featherweight and will “more than likely” get a crack at Jose Aldo now, according to Dana White. At the same time, a five-round fight with Aldo is going to be a tough night of work. I know Florian wants the challenge, and he might as well find out sooner rather than later if he’s up for it, but I hope he knows what he’s in for when he starves himself for a chance to get in the cage with that little buzz-saw.
Most Charismatic: Mark Munoz
The great thing about Munoz is that he’s a powerful, smash-mouth kind of fighter, but with a Labrador’s enthusiasm for life and everything in it. Even when he’s talking about getting rocked by Maia, his tone and expression suggest that he thought it was kind of fun, like going down a scary water slide. That kind of zeal for everything is infectious, and it makes it impossible not to like him. With the decision over Maia he has three straight victories under his belt, with each win more impressive than the last. He might not ever be champion, or even a top contender, but I can’t honestly say that I care. He’s just so fun to have around. And yeah, he’s a pretty good fighter, too.
Due to technical difficulties, Falling Action comes to you a day later than usual, and for that we apologize.
But as long as you haven’t pushed all recollection of UFC 131 out of your mind in order to make room for the beautiful new memories you made on Sunday and Monday – in other words, as long as you have greater brain capacity than a golden retriever – we figure most of you ought to still be able to enjoy a thorough discussion of this past weekend’s winners, losers, and everything in between.
Biggest Winner: Junior dos Santos
We knew the big Brazilian could box even before he turned Shane Carwin’s face into ground beef. What we (okay, I) wondered was, could he stay on his feet and out of the clinch enough to put those skills to work? Against former Division II national champion wrestler Carwin, the answer for dos Santos, much like it is for every question asked of the Kool-Aid Man, was: ohhhhh yeah. He picked Carwin apart with his jab and kept the fight at a safe distance (well, safe for him, extremely dangerous for Carwin). He even showed off some spiffy defensive wrestling on the few occasions where Carwin got in close enough to test him. UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez is quicker and more explosive than Carwin, so that will be a different kind of challenge, but dos Santos showed us on Saturday that he’s more than deserving of the shot. Now if only we didn’t have to go six months between major heavyweight fights, this division might actually get somewhere.
Biggest Loser: Shane Carwin
It was as gutsy a performance as you’ll ever see, and with it he proved that he has the cardio and the heart to go the distance. At the same time, the closest he came to being competitive in this fight was when he landed one solitary left hook that made JDS go wobbly, and even then he couldn’t get close enough to follow up. Carwin did the one thing he couldn’t afford to do in this fight, which was hang out at the end of dos Santos’ jab. He got into a boxing match with a superior boxer, and the results were about what you’d expect from such a strategy. Again, any man who can take that kind of a beating and still keep coming is so tough that he borders on being mentally ill, so give Carwin his props for that. At the same time, he’s 36 years old and in the past eleven months he’s lost one title shot and one no. 1 contender fight. It’s starting to look like that interim title might be the only UFC belt he’s ever going to own.
Most Impressive in Defeat: Demian Maia
The Maia of three years ago would have gone into the fight with Mark Munoz looking to pull half-guard right away just to avoid the terrifying world of stand-up fighting as much as possible. That Maia was very good at what he did, but he was also limited. In a losing effort against Munoz he showed that he’s a much more complete fighter now, and he’s only getting better. You could make the argument that he’s a little too content to fight on the feet these days, which leaves his best weapon – his submissions game – tragically under-used. I wouldn’t argue with that, and maybe neither would Maia. My hope is that what we’re seeing now is just the swing of the pendulum as his overall game evolves. Maybe this loss will convince him to find a better balance in the future.
Least Impressive in Victory: Krzysztof Soszynski
In fairness, Mike Massenzio didn’t give him much to work with, but what did we expect? Massenzio took a short-notice fight in the weight class above his own and Soszynski still couldn’t do much more to him than stuff his takedowns and try to set up an offense that came only in short, tentative bursts. True, Massenzio didn’t make for much of a dance partner, but if Soszynski can’t do more with a size advantage like that against a short-notice opponent, that’s a little troubling. He got the decision win, but didn’t bump his stock much higher in the process. Let’s hope his next opponent gives him more to work with.
Most Frightening: Yves Edwards
It wasn’t so much the punch that put him out, but the way he went down that made me cringe. The back of Edwards’ head thudded off the mat with a sickening sound and he lay there motionless for several minutes afterward. That always makes for an unnerving sight, but the 34-year-old Edwards is such a beloved character in this sport that it made it even tougher than usual to sit there and wait for him to show signs of recovery. Those kinds of knockouts are the scariest and probably the most dangerous. The blow Edwards took to the back of the head as a result of the fall seemed much worse and more damaging than the punch itself, and yet there was really nothing anyone could do to prevent it or soften the impact. The referee – or in this case, a compassionate opponent like Stout – can stop a fighter from taking needless punches after he’s out, but nobody can do anything about the effects of gravity on a suddenly unconscious man.
Most Surprising: Dave Herman
Giving up nearly thirty pounds to a monstrous jiu-jitsu specialist, all while claiming that jiu-jitsu “doesn’t work,” didn’t seem like a recipe for success. But to Herman’s credit he took Jon Olav Einemo’s best shots and gave back more than the big man could handle. Less surprising than Herman’s victory was just how fun the fight was to watch. It had so many ups and downs and ebbs and flows that it made eight minutes of fighting feel like twenty. Only, you know, in the good way. Enjoy your Fight of the Night bonus money, gentleman. You both earned it.
The ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’ Award: Kenny Florian
The move down to featherweight sounded like a pretty hellish, but business-savvy one for KenFlo. He saw the writing on the wall at lightweight and realized that if he didn’t want to turn into a gatekeeper, he needed to find a fresh start in a new division. The win over a very tough Diego Nunes at 145 pounds accomplished that. He has a new life as a featherweight and will “more than likely” get a crack at Jose Aldo now, according to Dana White. At the same time, a five-round fight with Aldo is going to be a tough night of work. I know Florian wants the challenge, and he might as well find out sooner rather than later if he’s up for it, but I hope he knows what he’s in for when he starves himself for a chance to get in the cage with that little buzz-saw.
Most Charismatic: Mark Munoz
The great thing about Munoz is that he’s a powerful, smash-mouth kind of fighter, but with a Labrador’s enthusiasm for life and everything in it. Even when he’s talking about getting rocked by Maia, his tone and expression suggest that he thought it was kind of fun, like going down a scary water slide. That kind of zeal for everything is infectious, and it makes it impossible not to like him. With the decision over Maia he has three straight victories under his belt, with each win more impressive than the last. He might not ever be champion, or even a top contender, but I can’t honestly say that I care. He’s just so fun to have around. And yeah, he’s a pretty good fighter, too.
Filed under: UFC, Rankings, FeatherweightsKenny Florian is the most likely next contender for the UFC featherweight championship. But has he really earned a title shot against Jose Aldo?
If the way you “earn” a title shot is to work your way up the la…
Kenny Florian is the most likely next contender for the UFC featherweight championship. But has he really earned a title shot against Jose Aldo?
If the way you “earn” a title shot is to work your way up the ladder and become the No. 2 fighter in your weight class, then the answer is no. Florian has fought just once at 145 pounds — his unanimous decision victory over Diego Nunes at UFC 131 — and that’s not enough to get him in the No. 2 spot ahead of Chad Mendes, who’s been fighting at featherweight his entire career and built up a 10-0 record.
But the real way a fighter earns a title shot is to become the guy the fans want to see fighting for a title: The UFC is in the business of selling pay-per-views, and Florian vs. Aldo would sell far more pay-per-views than Mendes vs. Aldo. Mendes has fought in the Octagon once and isn’t all that well known, while Florian has fought in Octagon 16 times and is a fan favorite. That’s why he’ll get the next crack at Aldo.
However, that’s not to say Florian isn’t also among the elite featherweights in MMA. Find out where I have him ranked below.
(Number in parentheses is the fighter’s previous ranking.)
1. Jose Aldo (1): So far, in the UFC and WEC there hasn’t been a featherweight who has what it takes to challenge Aldo: He’s 9-0 fighting under the Zuffa banner and hasn’t been in any real trouble. We’ll see if Florian can be the man to test Aldo, but I have my doubts.
2. Chad Mendes (2): Mendes thought he had earned the next shot at Aldo, but instead he’ll take on Rani Yahya in August, and hope that a good showing there earns him a title fight after that. Mendes is only 10 fights into his MMA career and still a little green, so having to wait a little longer may be good for him.
3. Hatsu Hioki (3): Here’s hoping Hioki is able to sign with the UFC soon. The best featherweights in the world are waiting for Hioki, who has been great in Japan and whose long limbs and well-rounded striking and grappling style could make him a threat to most of the top competition in the UFC.
4. Kenny Florian (NR): Is one win at 145 pounds enough to make Florian worthy of a Top 5 ranking? I think it is, considering that the one win was a very impressive one against a good opponent, and considering that Florian was generally recognized as a Top 5 fighter in a more talented weight class when he was fighting at 155.
5. Manny Gamburyan (4): Gamburyan is trying to bounce back from his loss to Aldo in September, and he’s got a very interesting fight coming up against Tyson Griffin, who like Gamburyan and Florian is a former lightweight hoping for more success in the shallower waters of the featherweight division.
6. Marlon Sandro (6): Bellator’s featherweight division has picked up some top-notch talent, and in my opinion the best of the bunch is Sandro, who will take on fellow Brazilian Genair da Silva in the first round of Bellator’s summer featherweight tournament.
7. Mark Hominick (7): His gutsy performance in defeat against Jose Aldo endeared Hominick to MMA fans. There’s talk that Hominick could face Chan Sung Jung next, in a fight that couldn’t possibly be anything less than thrilling.
8. Erik Koch (8): Koch is 12-1 in his career, with the only loss coming against Mendes. He’s been matched up with Season 12 Ultimate Fighter winner Jonathan Brookins in September.
9. Dustin Poirier (10): Poirier has looked like a much better fighter since moving down to featherweight, dominating both Josh Grispi and Jason Young at 145 pounds. Poirier is only 22 years old and is a likely future title contender.
10. Diego Nunes (9): Although he came up short against Florian, Nunes is only 28 years old and not done improving. He has a lot of big featherweight fights ahead of him.
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.”
Filed under: UFCEvery mixed martial arts event comes with its own set of storylines, intrigues that make us emotionally invested in what is soon to happen. Some are obvious, others are much more subtle. When a major superstar like Brock Lesnar rebounds…
Every mixed martial arts event comes with its own set of storylines, intrigues that make us emotionally invested in what is soon to happen. Some are obvious, others are much more subtle. When a major superstar like Brock Lesnar rebounds from a major illness to return to action, we all know it. But every fighter on the card has his own story.
For whatever reason, UFC 131 seems to have quite a collection of head-scratchers. The event is subtitled Dos Santos vs. Carwin, but it could just as easily have been called UFC 131: Question Mark.
Why? Because there is no shortage of things that make you go, Hmmm. From Jon Olav Einemo‘s five-year layoff to Kenny Florian fighting in his fourth division to Shane Carwin‘s weight drop and more, there are plenty of questions to think about.
1. What will Shane Carwin look like after surgery, nearly a year off, and losing over 20 pounds?
Carwin was forced into a long absence due to a procedure that addressed neck, back and nerve problems. Now all healed up and significantly lighter, Carwin may not physically resemble the fighter we got to know over recent years. While it’s true that his improved physical health and less weight may add quickness, we also have to wonder if it will affect his power.
Carwin’s sledgehammer hands have always been his No. 1 weapon, and so we are left to wonder if they will have the same force of power when he faces Junior dos Santos as they’ve had for so long. Even a slight decrease could mean the difference, since we all know that dos Santos likes to fight fire with fire.
2. What do we expect from Jon Olav Einemo?
We know Jon Olav Einemo is a 35-year-old Norwegian with incredible grappling skills, but who is he as a fighter today, after so much time away from the sport? He hasn’t fought an MMA match since Nov. 2006. His UFC 131 opponent Dave Herman started his career the very next month and has fought 22 times since then.
Einemo’s jiu-jitsu is a known quantity, and Herman can’t be surprised with anything he does there, but the rest of it is a wild card. For years now, Einemo has been training with the famed Golden Glory fight team, a camp that is notorious for building strikers. In five years, you can learn a lot about the striking game. In Einemo, we might see the rise of a new, well-rounded force, or we could see a guy dusting off a forgotten career. Anything is possible.
3. Will Kenny Florian be able to make 145 and maintain his explosiveness & stamina?
When Florian steps into the cage on Saturday, he will become the first UFC fighter ever to fight in four different weight classes, starting from middleweight and working off the pounds all the way to featherweight.
At 145, speed is at a premium. Diego Nunes has very fast hands, strong leg kicks, and judging from the beating he took from former champ Mike Brown — fighting him with one eye for two rounds, and winning — a strong heart and gas tank. From his previous runs as a contender at 155, we know that Florian has the skills to overwhelm lesser opponents, but there has to be a concern about what kind of toll dropping another division will have on his conditioning.
Florian is a consummate professional, and he seemed in good spirits at Wednesday’s open workouts, where he said he has about 14 pounds to cut before weigh-ins, but there is a law of diminishing returns with cutting weight, and he’s certainly flirting with it.
4. Is Diego Nunes a legitimate contender?
Talk about an under-the-radar contender. Nunes is hardly known by most fans despite a 16-1 record, including wins over top featherweights like Raphael Assuncao and Mike Brown.
The former WEC champion Brown was a fairly big-name opponent for Nunes, but he pales in name recognition to longtime UFC star Kenny Florian. If Nunes can beat Florian on Saturday, he vaults himself forward in a hurry. Everyone likes new contenders, and Nunes would clearly announce himself as such with a definitive win.
5. Chris Weidman … you again?
Weidman made his UFC debut on short notice against Alessio Sakara in April, and won. Afterward, he said he was going to take some time to let a broken rib heal. Yet now, here he is just three months later, fighting Jesse Bongfeldt. So what gives?
There is something to be said for giving a young fighter time between fights to improve his skills, but in this day and age, when the UFC calls, you have to be ready. Weidman had gone no longer than two weeks of letting his ribs heal when he got the call to replace Bongfeldt’s originally scheduled opponent. This time, at least Weidman had a full, eight-week camp, but you have to wonder if his rib sufficiently healed that quickly.
6. Munoz vs. Maia – Grapplers delight or standup war?
One was an All-American wrestler, the other is a decorated submission fighter who has no qualms with fighting from bottom position, so it would probably be quite fascinating if Mark Munoz and Demian Maia spent the whole 15 minutes of their middleweight bout on the ground.
Is that likely though? Probably not. Munoz has the ability to dictate the fight’s location, and if he doesn’t want to play in Maia’s guard, he may simply elect to engage in a standup fight, where he has far more power. But Maia is so terrifying on the ground that most fighters don’t even want to play the clinch game with him, for fear of him pulling guard. How will either man approach the other? It should be the most tactically interesting battle of the night.
7. Who is Vagner Rocha?
Not literally, of course. We know he’s a 29-year-old jiu-jitsu specialist who has previously fought in Strikeforce and Bellator, but there’s not a whole lot of tape out there on him, so it can’t be too easy for Donald Cerrone to know what to expect.
Rocha is a black belt under the esteemed grappling wizard Pablo Popovitch, and four of his six career wins are by sub, but Cerrone is usually fairly comfortable playing jiu-jitsu. If he takes Rocha lightly on the ground though, he may find he’s a little better than he expected. It’s never fun facing unknown commodities, and here’s why: this is one of those lose-lose scenarios for Cerrone, who is expected to win, and do so impressively. Anything else will seem like a letdown, regardless of how talented Rocha really is.
8. Mike Massenzio, how bad do you want it? Really bad, is clearly his answer. Massenzio was cut from the UFC last August after two straight losses. He’s fought all of his career as a middleweight, so UFC matchmaker Joe Silva had to be near the end of his little black book when he called Massenzio about not only taking a fight on four days’ notice, but moving up a weight class as well.
Massenzio didn’t blink, accepting the fight with Krzysztof Soszynski. Wise career move? Well, it got him back into the UFC, didn’t it? But we really can’t judge if it was smart until Saturday night.
Like so many other UFC 131 storylines, for now, it’s just another open-ended question.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — MMA Fighting spoke with Brazilian featherweight Diego Nunes on Wednesday about fighting Kenny Florian at UFC 131, what a win over Florian would do for his career, whether he feels like he is being overlooked in the UFC’s featherweight division and much more.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — MMA Fighting spoke with Brazilian featherweight Diego Nunes on Wednesday about fighting Kenny Florian at UFC 131, what a win over Florian would do for his career, whether he feels like he is being overlooked in the UFC’s featherweight division and much more.
Due to technical difficulties, Falling Action comes to you a day later than usual, and for that we apologize. 
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – As the smell of hot dogs cooking on the street above wafted through Robson Square during Thursday afternoon’s press conference, 
Every mixed martial arts event comes with its own set of storylines, intrigues that make us emotionally invested in what is soon to happen. Some are obvious, others are much more subtle. When a major superstar like Brock Lesnar rebounds from a major illness to return to action, we all know it. But every fighter on the card has his own story.