Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight contender Kenny ”KenFlo” Florian has hired a wrestling coach and expects to make a return to the UFC in early 2011. Florian, coming off a unanimous decision loss to Gray “The Bully” Maynard, at UFC 118 is redoubling his efforts to become a more complete fighter.  Prior to the fight, UFC President Dana White had indicated that the winner of Florian vs. Maynard would go on to fight for the UFC lightweight championship. Had Florian defeated Maynard, he would have been in line for his third shot at the championship belt. After the defeat, which came in front of Florian’s hometown of Boston, he took an ...

 Even in victory it's the great fighters in MMA who are always humble and never believe they've reached the pinnacle. That was the attitude of Georges St-Pierre after defeating Dan Hardy at UFC 111, and Kenny Florian displayed much the same attitude coming off of a dominant win over former Pride champion Takanori Gomi at UFC Fight Night 21 on Wednesday. The fight was always in Florian's control, from the stand-up to the ground game, but the Massachusetts fighter remained grounded, realizing that he still hasn't reached the finish line. "I know I still have a lot to work on, we're slowly changing things around, re-positioning some pieces, and slowly changing my style to be able to ...

  With four wins in a row, it would be difficult to deny Kurt Pellegrino has developed into a legitimate title contender. Since returning to his native New Jersey and hooking up with fellow UFC lightweight Kenny Florian, Pellegrino has flourished and now has his sights set on goals he once thought unobtainable. Shortly after his recent win at UFC 111, Pellegrino told MMAWeekly.com, “I had set my goals in the middle. I just told people I wanted to fight in the UFC. I believed that was the highest I could set my goals, and I have to reset everything. “I told my wife that I never wanted the belt, I ...

Over the past few years, we've seen a number of situations in which a fighter works his way up to the number one contender spot, loses the title fight, and then spends the next few years proving that he can beat anyone in the division except the champion.  Jon Fitch and Rich Franklin come immediately to mind, and now Kenny Florian finds himself in a similar position. Florian has to be considered the favorite against anybody in the UFC lightweight division besides BJ Penn.  The next logical fight for Florian is Gray Maynard, and while it's a tough fight, I would pick Florian to win it.  If he does, he'd effectively knock off ...

The highly touted Takanori Gomi made his UFC debut live on Spike TV from North Carolina against perennial title challenger Kenny Florian to headline the UFC Fight Night 21 card. The UFC sold him as an "all time great", "the last PRIDE champion" and his 30+ wins were mentioned. Former title challenger and TUF veteran Kenny Florian entered the cage as the home country fighter, well known and respected by the fans.   He then proceeded to utterly dominate and dismantle Takanori Gomi. Florian picked Gomi apart standing in the first round but waited until the third, when Gomi began to land punches on the feet to shoot in for the take down where ...