Jose Aldo Defends Featherweight Title Vs. Kenny Florian at UFC 136 By Matt Erickson MMA writer 085 Someone at the UFC office must have marked July 15 as "Fight Announcement Day" on the calendar. After several major fight bookings were announced on Friday, the promotion added one more big one for UFC 136 – a featherweight title fight between champion Jose Aldo and Kenny Florian. The UFC made the announcement on its official website. UFC 136 will take place Oct. 8 in Houston, the UFC's second trip to the nation's fourth-largest city. The pay-per-view event will be headlined by a lightweight title trilogy rematch between champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, a fight booking first reported Friday by MMA Fighting. Aldo (19-1, 1-0 UFC) will be defending his featherweight belt for the fourth time and second time as a UFC fighter after the WEC merged with the promotion at the start of this year. In April at UFC 129, Aldo beat Mark Hominick by unanimous decision to retain the title. In the WEC, after beating Mike Brown in November 2009 to win the belt, Aldo beat former champ Urijah Faber and Manny Gamburyan in title defenses. Aldo had been set for a title defense against Chad Mendes at UFC 133 next month in Philadelphia. But because of various injuries, Aldo was forced to delay his return to the cage. Mendes elected to stay busy and took a fight with Rani Yahya on the same card – where a win would likely make him next in line after Florian. Florian (15-5, 12-4 UFC) will fight for just the second time at featherweight after moving down from a five-year stint at lightweight. The 145-pound division is Florian's fourth weight class in the UFC. He began his career in the promotion at middleweight on Season 1 of "The Ultimate Fighter" before moving to welterweight for two fights, then a long run at 155 pounds that included two title challenges – losses to Sean Sherk and BJ Penn. Last month at UFC 131, Florian made his featherweight debut, outpointing Diego Nunes by unanimous decision. After that fight, UFC president Dana White said Florian was likely next in line to challenge for Aldo's title. UFC 136, which will be accompanied by a lead-in UFC Fan Expo, now features the two title fights; a middleweight bout between surging contender Brian Stann and former title challenger Chael Sonnen, fighting for the first time since his recent suspension; and, announced in the last 24 hours, fights between Dave "Pee Wee" Herman-Mike Russow, Demian Maia-Jorge Santiago, Joe Lauzon-Melvin Guillard and Josh Grispi-Matt Grice.
And Florian is 35 years old. Personally I think the cut to 145 is unhealthy for Kenny.. The dude cut to get to 155 and that was his best weight. He just couldn't hang with the best in that division, but it wasn't about weight. He just isn't as good an athlete as the Penn, Maynard and Edgars of the world. Kenny works hard and has come a long way but Aldo fucks him up.
I thought Kenny fought at the weight before, point taken.. It sounds like both guys will gas out after r1. I still think aldo will move up pretty soon.
What a weird fight, I always picture Florian as the TUF 1 middleweight, fighting (and beating) Leben etc. Now he's fighting little Aldo. I pick Aldo for 2 reasons. 1 - He's better. 2 - Florian making 145 isn't good. He must be weakening himself quite a bit to make that weight, especially at his age, where guys are generally moving up in weight rather than down. If he was 25 with his height and build, it wouldn't be much of a problem.
What? Florian has fought at 185. He is much bigger than Aldo naturally, and must have a MUCH harder time making 145. He beat Chris Leben at 185 ::
It's not like he dominated Leben, he cut him with an elbow and the fight was stopped. Florian had no business at 185. Diego Sanchez and Josh Koscheck were also on the show at 185.
I know, and he obviously looked soft and pudgy, but the point is he's actually been in with legit 185 pounders and won. Dont underestimate even the experience of being in there with much bigger guys. I think Florian is more like a natural 154 pounder, and obviously a 154 pounder in his early 30's deciding to shed an extra 10 pounds isn't a good thing. I think it's safe to say Florian is going to have a harder time making 145 than Aldo.
I know, I remember watching the show. I thought he fought at the weight before.. Regardless I still think Aldo will gas in the fight - he needs to move up.
Florian usually fought around 145lbs before he was on TUF. The only reason he fought as a middleweight on The Ultimate Fighter was because the first season had lightheavyweights and middleweights, and Dana White wanted him on the show. Florian impressed him in a fight he had, but Florian was only a middleweight for the TUF season, and even then he was underweight. Same goes with Diego Sanchez.
Sanchez is a natural 170 pounder, he looked crap as 155. Sanchez suited being a middleweight WAY more than Florian. Incidentally, are you sure he fought at 145 before the show? I thought he fought at 170, then continued fighting at 170 after the show, and then moved down to 155.
Kenny's fight right before getting into TUF was at 170 with Drew Fickett. Kenny said his first fight after TUF was the first time he fought at his "natural weight" of 155. If that means anything.
Florian fought his last fight at 145, he looked fine. It's not like this is the first time. It should be even easier this time around if he kept his weight down.
