Kenny Florian expected to debut at Featherweight against Diego Nunes at UFC 131
Posted on February 19, 2011, 03:37 PM by Joey SantosusFormer Lightweight title contender Kenny Florian is expected to make his Featherweight debut at UFC 131 against Diego Nunes.
After hinting at a possible transition to 145-pounds earlier this month, Florian made the announcement while co-hosting ESPN's "MMA Live" Friday night. The June match-up will mark the fourth weight class he has competed in under the UFC banner.
Florian (13-5) began his UFC career as a Middleweight while competing on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter. After losing in the finale to Diego Sanchez, he dropped to Welterweight where he went 2-0 before making a 9-3 run at Lightweight. In his latest outing at UFC 118, Florian found himself just one win away from a third shot at the 155-pound title, but was out-wrestled by top contender Gray Maynard en-route to a unanimous decision loss.
Diego Nunes (16-1) signed with the WEC in 2008, where he went 4-1 before the promotion was absorbed by the UFC last fall. In his octagon debut at UFC 125, he defeated former division champion Mike Brown via split decision to improve his win streak to three. His sole professional loss came by decision to former WEC Featherweight L.C. Davis.
UFC 131 is expected to take place on June 11th from the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and feature a Heavyweight showdown between TUF 13 coaches Brock Lesnar and Junior dos Santos.
Photo: CombatLifestyle.com
Comments
Must be the first guy to drop 3 weight classes since his debut
Joe Riggs fought at Heavyweight and dropped down to fight at Welterweight.
Florian/Nunes is a sick match up...I would rather see Omigawa vs Florian or Mendes vs Florian but Nunes is a tough fight
think ivan menjivar used to fight at middleweight now hes in the ufc at featherweight, madness!
i like florian good guy good bjj skills! not aggressive enough thoe! hope this guy can pull it together in this latest weight class!
kenhoe will never be champ
Oh yeah that's right, I heard he was 330 lbs before he started fighting.
joe riggs actually fought at over 300lbs in super heavyweight i believe, he is the king of the weight cut
How low can you go? He'd be better off developing some wrestling skills that can compete with the best of any of those divisions.
Isn't Kenny six feet? I can not believe he won't be too weak at that weight.
Kenny's 5'10
this choker will be at 135 before the years out.
Please stop saying that Fedor is the man because he fought bigger guys than him....out of his 30 somthing fights only like 4 or 5 fighters actually had a huge weight/height advantage on him (Semmy, Zuzulhio, Sylvia n Man Choi) the rest of his opponents have been around his size....n weight cutting is part of MMA, why wouldn't you want to give yourself more advantages n better chance at winning??? weight cutting doesnt make you weak, if that was true than I guess you consider fighters like Wand, Penn, Anderson, GSP, Shogun, Rampage, Belfort etc all weak
retard say what?
This is a good Debut fight for Kenny. Nunes has beaten former champion Mike Brown and BJJ Black Belt Raphael Assuncao.