Kenny Florian - In Cruise Control

(photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle)

Kenny Florian is a busy man. Aside from being one of the most exciting lightweights in mixed martial arts, “KenFlo” is a jack-of-all-trades in the sport, hosting MMA Live on ESPN.com and joining the broadcast team during recent UFC pay per view events. He took time out of his hectic schedule to speak with the Fight Network Radio crew about his highly anticipated fight with Roger Huerta this coming Saturday at UFC 89 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, implementing more weight classes in mixed martial arts, and branching out in the fight world.

Co-host John Pollock, running the show while host Mauro Ranallo is on vacation asked Florian about the pressure putting on a great show and being involved in what could be a possible fight of the year. Florian admitted he himself was expecting fireworks, hyping the fight by saying, “You have two very aggressive well-rounded fighters who are going to go at each other from the start of the fight and I expect a very dynamic and fast paced fight. That’s the way I fight, that’s the way Roger fights. I don’t expect any different for this fight. It’s going to come down to the little details, who did all the things right and who can capitalize on each other’s mistakes”. He spoke about his approach to making weight, admitting he’s about 167 pounds at the moment (12 pounds from his weigh-in weight of 155 pounds) and that on weigh-in day he’d be about 162-163 pounds. In training for this fight with Huerta, he’d gained a few pounds of muscle and compared his mental state at the moment as one of “cruise control. The hard training is done and now it’s just about being mentally prepared and keeping the knife sharp”. He further elaborated on his preparation, stating, “I like to do a lot of visualization; I do meditation and kind of just get focused. My body just knows, my mind just knows. I’m not as friendly; I’m not joking around as much. I know that my body’s getting ready for something great. I really feel that after all this hard training, all the pain and suffering I went through for this camp and every camp, it’s time to perform. I get my reward on August 9th; I get to go out there and do my job so I’m excited for that”.

Pollock brought up the Association of Boxing Commission (ABC) Convention held recently in Montreal. A controversial topic discussed at the convention was the possible implementation of additional weight classes in mixed martial arts. Pollock used Florian’s losses against Diego Sanchez (at 185 pounds, with Sanchez noticeably much larger than Florian) and Sean Sherk (at 155 pounds, again with Sherk being bigger) as examples of the difference in weight classes. Florian was outspoken about the subject saying, “ I would love to see a 195 pound weight class for example, maybe a 235 pound weight class or a 165 pound weight class. Maybe every 10 pounds would be very beneficial to a lot of fighters out there who may be in between. We’ve seen problems in the past with fighters trying to make weight. I’m not making any excuses for them or anything like that. That’s their job, they should weigh in on weight obviously but perhaps that would help alleviate some of those concerns, some of those problems. I think at this point with the amount of fighters out there, I think the organizations can certainly sustain the other weight classes so I’m all for it”. However, he noted that he believed he was in the right weight class (155 pounds) for himself.

A trend has emerged with fighters branching out into other divisions of not only the fight world, but in areas such as fashion and entertainment. Florian has stuck mainly to the MMA industry, honing his skills as a host of MMA Live and in the broadcast booth with the UFC. Florian excitedly talked about those opportunities, but made clear his heart still lies with the physical aspect of MMA. “First and foremost my priority is fighting and that’s still something I’m very passionate about. As soon as that dies down, I’ll know its time to hang up the gloves. It’s been a great thing. I was hoping, really, for something like this to come up a little bit later in my career but I’ll take it. It’s an opportunity that I really couldn’t pass up with ESPN. I’m really happy with them over there, everything’s been going great. Hopefully we can get the show (MMA Live) on TV and really take mixed martial arts to the next level and a lot of these opportunities that have come to me, I just feel real blessed. You can’t fight forever and you need a back up plan. It’s always good to have something besides getting hit in the face so these are all good things and I’m looking forward to what the future holds but right now, fighting is my number one priority”. He talked about trying to be an impartial figure in the media, admitting how tough it is to be personally involved with his fellow fighters and having to make fight predictions and the like. He even joked that maybe the reason he hadn’t heard from some of his fighter friends was because they were offended at his predictions or remarks.

UFC President Dana White has put the spotlight on the Huerta-Florian fight as he has indicated the winner of the fight would likely face lightweight champion BJ Penn. But Pollock pointed out Penn’s desire to fight the winner of the welterweight title fight, with champion Georges St. Pierre defending against challenger Jon Fitch (the main event on the same card as Huerta-Florian). He asked Florian if it bothered him in any way that BJ was vocal about hopping from one division to another.

“No, not at all. I know BJ’s motivated by different things. He’s accomplished a lot of great things in his career and just wants bigger and better things. I’m sure that if BJ gets the belt, or he ends up fighting St. Pierre and beats him, I’m sure he’ll be back to 155 pounds. It’s tough for me to say how another person should feel but I know BJ pretty well and I know he’s motivated by very specific things, especially losses that he wants to get back on his record. I’m sure that he’ll be back at the 155 division and if not, no problem. As long as I get to fight the best guys that are out there and the toughest guys, I’ll be happy”. Answering a caller’s question regarding Penn against St. Pierre, Florian held the opinion that he believed Penn has the tools to defeat St. Pierre. After discussing Penn, Florian touched on the subject of lightweights not under contract to the UFC. Eddie Alvarez, Gesias “JZ” Calvacante, and Joachim Hansen were brought up and Florian had respect for them all, especially in regards to Japanese fighters Takanori Gomi and Shinya Aoki. He simplified his earlier statements saying “I want to break into the top ten consistently like those guys and I want to show that I’m one of the best in the world and in order to do that, you’ve got to fight the best and I want to keep fighting the best so I can be regarded as a top ten”.

A listener, Steve, inquired about a game plan Florian was formulating with his trainers against Huerta. Florian didn’t divulge too much, saying, “Mark (Delagrotte) and I have always gone over a lot of things, and with my brother as well. There are specific things that we feel we can expose in Roger’s game, assuming those weaknesses are still there. We’re assuming that Roger’s filled a lot of those holes but based on what we’ve seen, we feel that there are a lot of holes in his game and I think I have the skills to exploit them and God willing, it’ll happen. I’ve got a lot of great trainers around me and we’ve done the work and we’ve done our homework and I’ve put in the long hours and we’re hoping that it’ll pay off”. To end the show, a listener, Charlie from Ontario offered Florian his support, stating he felt Florian would “walk through Huerta easily in the first round”. Florian didn’t overtly disagree saying, “Huerta is tough as nails and I have to be ready for sure. I know I can finish him in the first round and we’ll see what happens but I’m expecting a war”.