UFC 131: Kenny Florian Vs Diego Nunes – THE BREAKDOWN
By Siri Karri
The fight that buffers the main event features the pint-sized brawlers of the UFC from the recently acquired featherweight division. This match up features UFC fan favorite Kenny “Ken Flo” Florian making his 145lb. debut against the game and dangerous Deigo Nunes.
What Kenny Florian brings to the Table
Kenny Florian needs no introduction; he was part of the original Ultimate Fighter cast that catapulted the UFC into the mainstream spotlight. He was the savvy, somewhat chunky Boston nice guy who now competes at a weight class forty pounds lighter than his original 185.
Ken Flo embodies the term “Jack of All Trades”; he has beautiful kicks, punches, elbows and knees and he utilizes his long and lanky limbs to ensnare opponents on the ground. He has fought and finished fan favorites Sam Stout, Joe Lauzon, Joe Stevenson and Clay Guida en route to an impressive 11-4 record within the UFC. His vast number of fights is supplemented with two shots for the lightweight title
with a “Fight of the Night” and “Submission of the Night” bonus to boot.
Coming off a loss to title contender Gray Maynard, Kenny Florian has forgone his Lightweight title hopes and shaved another 10 lbs off his already lean frame and fight in the UFC’s featherweight division.
Look out everybody, here comes Ken Flo.
What Diego Nunes brings to the Table
Don’t let the fact that Diego Nunes doesn’t have any post-fight bonuses fool you; he simply had the misfortune of being in the WEC where every fight is exciting. His mixed martial arts record stands at an outstanding 16-1, with a large stint in the WEC in which he went 4-1 with good reason.
Nunes is an incredibly well rounded fighter. I’m not saying he can do everything, I mean he DOES everything. He’s scored knockouts via head kicks, he’s got a mean guillotine choke, and he’s shown that he’s always up for a good war in his split decision win over iron-handed wrestler Mike Brown.
What stands out most is Nunes’s athleticism. There’s a certain degree of athleticism that anyone in the 145 division has, but Nunes def. has a slight edge. While Mike Brown resorted to blindly charging in during their fight, Nunes was the one who was utilized beautiful spinning kicks and looping hooks.
While Nunes plays a backseat in terms of stardom behind fighters such as Jose Aldo and Dominick Cruz, he deserves this fight against one of the UFC’s golden boys.
X-Factor
It’s worth noting that every single one of Florian’s losses have been against opponents who can physically overwhelm him. Diego Sanchez simply took him down and smashed him to bits in the Ultimate Fighter 1 Finale. Sean Sherk did the same thing to take the lightweight title. B.J. Penn stuffed Kenny’s offense and dominated him, and Gray Maynard also stifled Kenny’s varied skill set to grind out a decision.
While moving down a weight class might be the obvious solution, understand that Kenny Florian is now 5′ 10″ 145 lbs. That’s like . . . anorexic. At this point Kenny has sacrificed a lot of muscle and potentially his cardio in order to make the weight cut.
Prediction
While Kenny’s weight cut definitely causes me some concern, the fact is that Kenny is more capable of finishing a fight off late than Nunes is. Maybe Nunes will do some damage, but in the end it will be Ken Flo who does the real damage.
Kenny Florian by 3rd rd. TKO