Kenny Florian will quite frankly be known as a fighter who came very close to greatness, but was never quite great. He had three different title opportunities and came up shy all three times. His first lightweight title shot was against Sean Sherk for the vacant title at the time and he lost by decision. He then racked up a six fight winning streak before falling to BJ Penn in another title fight by rear naked choke. Another crack at the lightweight title was just around the corner, but Gray Maynard halted that one. Following his loss to Maynard, Florian decided to give the featherweight division a shot. He won his debut against Diego Nunes and immediately gained a title shot against Jose Aldo. At UFC 136 Florian took on Aldo who is one of the top pound for pound fighters in the world and came up short again.
Following the loss to Aldo, the MMA community thought it might be time for Florian to take a step back from the octagon and call it quits. Kenny does not see it this way and in fact has decided to make a return to his natural weight class (155lbs) and title or not he will continue to fight.
Kenny spoke with the BostonHerald.com and thanks to MMAMania.com for the transcription.
I still love this sport tremendously and still want to be a part of it. I know myself and it’s not even just being competitive, but it’s just being there learning and competing. There’s still very much a fire burning there so I’m going to do it…. I didn’t get in this to be second-best, of course. But at the same time, not everybody can be a champion. I’m just going to go back to 155, work my way up, take it one fight at a time and see where it puts me. I think there’s exciting fights out there for me, there’s still challenges out there for me, there’s still things I’d like to try to improve on and that’s the main thing. I don’t necessarily have the title in my eyes, but I do have my own personal goals as far as the technical level that I want to get to.
What do you Sucka’s think? Does Kenny have what it takes to gain another lightweight title shot? Do you think he should have retired?
