Kenny Florian Fires Back at Dana White: I Think [He's] Dead Wrong

that he has to sell a main event match between Edgar and Maynard and talking it out on the guys who lost.

You seriously talked up being able to wrestle Gray all over the joint because you train with GSP. So, either you need to get your head in check before the fight or really need to learn to wrestle.

Once you figure it out, come back and clean up all the non-contenders you always own. Then once there’s levity on a match, we’ll see if you wilt again.

Kenny has a problem with guys that are bigger and stronger than he is, at 34 he’s not gonna be able to develop a really strong wrestling base he should try bulking up a little and work his offensive boxing and offensive guard work. He would have done better against Maynard but he couldn’t get his kicks going to set up his hands so he was lost on what to do. At least that’s the way I saw it.

is that it overlooks the Stevenson fight, which was one of the best performances of Florian’s career. Florian’s losing has nothing to do with choking in big time fights and everything to do with not being particularly good off of his back and thus being afraid to open up and get taken down.

Personally I think Florian was more tentative because when he opened up and went crazy against Sherk it just resulted in getting taken down more frequently and so the plan was to stay calm and focus on stuffing Maynard’s shots. I’d love to hear from Florian on that.

The man has to talk. He is one of those guys who is constantly compelled to speak. Most of the shit that spills out of his mouth arrives to him impulsively with no fore thought. This is why he constantly contradicts himself. In this case I think he was frustrated with the way many of the fights on this card played out. He can’t talk shit about Joe Silva’s rare failure in match making so he turns on Kenny in the moment without really considering the implications of his statements. The guy is a douche bag.

but the fact is Kenny looked like shit Saturday night. He wouldn’t let go with his hands at all. I was telling my friends watching the fights that something was wrong with Kenny.

I know that he couldn’t just go crazy throwing hands and feet early in the fight, but at the very end of the 3rd round Kenny danced for over 20 seconds and didn’t throw 1 strike, then grabbed his head in frustration when the bell rang.

People get bent out of shape when someone in power speaks their mind. Personally, I like that about Dana. He didn’t give some horseshit PC answer, he said what he thought. You may not agree, but that doesn’t mean you’re right. it’s a matter of opinion.

“I didn’t freeze at all. I felt fine. I felt relaxed,” Florian said.

If this is true, then I feel bad for Florian because he’ll never reach the top.

He wasn’t fine, even with 20 seconds left in the 3rd and on his feet, he didn’t do squat to pull the trigger on trying to hit Maynard even once.

maybe Kenny can use this as motivation to go out and prove Dana wrong. Dana is going to speak his mind anyways.

I personally think Dana meant more of Kenny underperforms and is too tentative, using choking as saying he was the superior fighter but didn’t use all his abilities.

Who has he supposedly choked against? Penn and Maynard? If you ask me they both just flat out beat Florian. It had nothing to do with what Florian did and everything to do with what his opponent did. Maybe there are more I am missing but I see little shame in losing to B.J. Penn (who has beaten most of the entire LW class) or Gray Maynard who is still undefeated and heading into a title fight against a guy he’s already destroyed once.

I think Dana just wants to start unloading the TUF guys that are more or less untouchable (Bonnar, Sanchez and Florian namely) but aren’t doing too great. I mean, if these guys weren’t partially responsible for the rise of the UFC they would have been cut based on record/performance by now. I think Dana is slowly moving towards giving these guys full time commentating positions (be it UFC, WEC or whatever) and sending them in to “retirement”. That way he knows no other promotion benefits from them, but he doesn’t have to keep paying them so much. Just my opinion.

Kenny Florian chokes in big fights against better opponents. Huerta and Stevenson were big fights, but they aren’t as good as he is. Sherk, Penn, and Maynard were big fights against better opponents, and he looked outclassed against all three. It’s not too remarkable to say that florian is the guy who beats up lesser opponents, and gets schooled by better opponents.

Wait so they are mad that Dana said Kenny choked in a big fight and instead they are wanting us to believe that Gray Maynard just whooped his ass? You know choking in big fights is something that is very fixable, having a big hole in your game that allows guys like Maynard and Sherk to beat you is a much bigger deal. When I read Dana’s comments I thought he was trying to cover for Kenny’s shitty performance with an excuse, perhaps he should of just sold Kenny down the river and said that he wasn’t as good as Gray Maynard and made Kenny happy? So lets all remember that Kenny doesn’t choke in big fights he’s just not good enough to beat certain guys, we don’t want Kenny to feel we are getting misled here.

But I think this is one of those instances where Dana is being honest and trying to be helpful. We’ve all been in situations where we have to break it to a friend that something they do or say or think is actually a problem in their life. We don’t do it to be assholes, we do it because we care about the other person. That said, I’m making the assumption that White has that kind of relationship with Florian, but its a fairly plausible assumption.

Regardless, thats the kind of shit you say 1 on 1, not to the fucking press, or in the case of my analogy, to your friend’s whole family.

Even though it’s a much smaller sample size, Florian does choke in the big fights.

Lost to Sherk for the title
Lost to Penn for the title
Lost to Maynard for a shot at the title

He did beat Gomi but that wasn’t a “big” fight. It was for a fight for a shot for a fight for the #1 contender.

Penn is not a wrestler and he looked just as bad against him as he did against Gray.

With the UFC fighters having 3 months minimum(usually) in between fights gives the fans, media, and other people(who call themselves fans but like to jump on and off of bandwagons and get down on a fighter as soon as he loses when the day before he was the best thing since sliced bread) a lot of time to criticize and come up with scenarios and build up some fighters into someone who can’t be beat and then when they lose it seems like everyone turns against them. Well for the most part I should say.
 It then becomes a huge surprise when someone like BJ Penn or Anderson Silva gets dominated. These fighters are human and losses happen. Sometimes it is just like Kenny said. He just got out wrestled. I have to agree with Kenny here. I still think Kenny had the tools to dominate Gray but it didn’t happen. Big deal. Let’s move on people!
I think that Dana White should be smarter than that. To talk about a consistent fighter like Kenny like that who represents the sport so well is selling Kenflo short.
I for one think it’s rather exciting that Florian and Penn are out of the title picture for the moment. It makes for some interesting matchmaking possibilities to say the least.

Stout is a gatekeeper and with that lone LW win he got to fight Sherk and Kenny couldn’t beat him.

Stevenson has pretty much been a gatekeeper since Penn brutalized him and again, Florian is just better than Joe Daddy. Then he fights Penn and gets choked out and fought scared the entire time.

He beats Guida (another gatekeeper), had a very impressive win against Gomi, but then fought Maynard and looked helpless off his back.

Florian just doesn’t have what it takes, which sucks because I like him.

what I do know is, Kenny was very very hesitant to throw anything when they were standing, and even on the last few moments of the third round when he was definitely down 3-0…

He had nothing to lose, by just letting go and throwing strikes, and I was really surprised he wasn’t engaging more, or at all…

I don’t know if he choked, but he wasn’t aggressive and hen let Gray take the fight from him. Hopefully this will light a fire under Ken-Flo.

White is right that Florian is vulnerable to stage fright and his career is just that “limited.” Florian better change professions. He was a very poor example of MMA and has been given too much credit for something that he does not have.

Sure he’s been in many fights that you could legitimately call big, but it’s all relative. If he can’t see how the Penn and Maynard fights were some of the biggest of his career i think he’s not being honest with himself.

White shouldn’t be saying such things, even if he, and a lot of the public think it’s true.

He seemed overly cautious, as if he was over thinking everything. I was quite surprised. He was basically throwing one punch at a time, mixed in with the occasional high kick.

I’m not really sure what his game plan was, but it didn’t seem like a good one.

I feel badly for Kenny, because I believe that he is one of the best in the division, but he’ll never be a title holder with the guys that he’ll have to beat to get there.

for making Kenny an , ummm,boring fighter. Firas seems to do alot of that. kenny 3 years ago woulda lit maynard up with elbows from his back. i thoroughly believe this. kenny switched up his whole mindset from muay thai to wrestling, when in reality he should have added wrestling to his muay thai. it would have made him more complete. he’s now a boxer. he should mend fences, and split camps between canada and Sityodtong and round out his game.