When Kenny Florian first emerged in the UFC, he was a finalist in the Middleweight Division of the inaugural “Ultimate Fighter” season. He soon moved down to Welterweight, and then became a title contender at Lightweight.<\/p>\n
Yet he simply could not grab the belt from then-champion BJ Penn, and recent title challenger Gray Maynard used a strength and power advantage to hand him another loss. At UFC 131, he debuts in his fourth weight class–the Featherweight division.<\/p>\n
Will Florian finally find the division that syncs with his title ambitions? Or, will the talented Diego Nunes make Florian regret leaving the Lightweight division?<\/p>\n
The result follows:
\nKenny Florian b. Diego Nunes via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)<\/p>\n
Story of the fight: Florian’s size advantage did not make its presence felt immediately. In fact, though it was Florian who opted to break the striking standstill with a takedown attempt, Nunes actually scored the first significant takedown of the fight (Florian would later even the score with his own takedown, although Nunes dropped Florian with a late strike). Neither, ultimately, was able to do anything of note on the ground, but as the round went on, Nunes started to show off a striking advantage. This should have definitely been a Nunes round. His strikes were quicker and crisper, he got the first takedown, and he was the only one who appeared to do any damage.<\/p>\n
The two fighters still failed to get a rhythm going on the feet, and with fatigue starting to come into play, takedowns were coming more easily. Nunes net a big takedown early in the second round, but by the end, Florian had turned the tables and was making a real impact. With Nunes on his back, Florian was pressuring Nunes with his weight–and punches–and affected Nunes with both pain and fatigue. The fight started to belong to Kenny Florian.<\/p>\n
Florian worked the same advantage in the second round, with the “TUF” contestant again working Nunes back to the mat and delivering some ground-and-pound from the top. Late in the round, however, Nunes worked his way back to the feet and started to press forward with offense. Florian did a great job fighting it off and maintaining his edge, but during a late trade session that went into the bell, Nunes rocked Florian with a hard punch. Still, it was not enough to take the fight from Kenny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[],"adace-sponsor":[],"yoast_head":"\n