Florian Heading to Featherweight Division

http://sports.espn.go.com/extra/mma/news/story?id=6100420

"I started playing around with the idea: could I make 145? Originally, I didn't think it was possible," Florian. "I spoke with a few nutritionists, got their opinions, told them what my body fat was, my walking-around weight, all that stuff and the general consensus was that it was very possible.

"I put a lot of thought into it, spoke with my coaches and everybody involved and decided that I am going to try it. I'm going to go for it."

At 34 years old, Florian remains focused solely on becoming a UFC champion. He has come up short in two previous title opportunities, and his hopes of a third shot evaporated with the loss to Maynard.

Kawa is confident that Florian, who is ranked among the top 10 lightweights, will get a title shot at 145 sooner rather than later. But Kawa knows his fighter will have to prove himself first.

actually, i like kenny at LW. hes still one of the top guys and still has a chance at winning the title. i dont want all these LWs dropping to fw thinking the title will be easy pickings. its like when you cant score with a cute girl, you lower your standards thinking the ugly chick is a definite home run.

I think he should stay at LW he's pretty good there. Actually I've always thought kenflo was small at LW

Good analogy.  If kenny if comfy there why not make the cut.  He should do a couple practice cuts to see how he feels then decide tho.  Id hate to see him lose an edge the way diego sanchez and mike swick did.  
Its all about finding the right weight for them to compete at.

He's very lean already at 145 and even with a nutritionist he hasn't done extreme weight cutting in his career like a Sherk, Fitch, or GSP. I'm not sure how he's going to do down there, but it'd be intriguing to see him fight Aldo. What's he got to lose in the end though,  i don't see a third title shot at LW coming anytime soon for him.

Kenny and Tyson on the way down should add a bit of spice to 145. Are tyson and kenny gona be on 145 rankings soon or is it after they compete ?

I'd rather see Kenny stay at lightweight and work on his wrestling.  It's true that Kenny is already very lean at 155, cutting the extra 10 pounds could end up hurting him more than anything.  I guess we'll find out soon.

His first fight should be against someone like Diego Nunes or Josh Grispi if he wants a fast track to being a contender.

I don't know how he will do. He has no wrestling, which has hurt him greatly but I don't see many guys going to be grinding him out down there. He could do very well, but I doubt it.

He is already very tall and skinny, so he has to lose weight and strength. He is not all that fast at LW, and compared to the FW division.. he is going to look like a sloth compared to a guy like Aldo.

@tacoma, i agree with the speed issue.  Look at diego dropping to 155 after being a fast ww, he suddenly was on par for speed.  Kenny will look slow but if hes stronger than most (not something hes currently known for) then he may still do well.
@thiago, im pretty sure they need to have a fight to be ranked.

Even then, he is one of the weaker WW's I can't think of someone weaker actually.

But! He will be able to outreach everybody by.. a ****-ton. So basically he will be jabbing everyone to death and using some of that nasty Muay-Thai I love so much.

I hope he does well, simply not sure.

i in agree with most everyone.  I would rather see Kenny take on learning a new skill set (wrestling) before dropping to FW.  Kenny has def shown his weaknesses with the top tier LW and dropping down to FW will not make up for those gaps. 

I disagree with you HeadKick.

One thing dropping weight does.. is help him get away from the strong wrestlers in the LW division.

 

But.. then again it is hurting his overall game.

TacomaTerror:

I agree that Kenny  dropping to FW removes the threat of the LW wrestles but I do not see Kenny being able to hang with Aldo, Brown or Faber any easier than the top of the LW division.  I will completely agree that Kenny would have more trouble with Maynard and Edgar but I don't think dropping to FW is the answer. 

What I don't understand is this part of the quote:

"For me it's first things first. My goal is to get the 145-pound belt, and then go up to 155 and challenge for that belt as well."  Kenny Florian

That's great to have the goal of being a multi weight class champion but I don't think dropping to 145 and possibly winning the belt wil help him win the LW belt in the future.  I know, I know, he's hoping Edgar wil not be the champion by then but I will submit that any future champion will be just as versed in wrestling as Edgar.  Which does not suit Kenny well.

I guarentee you he is hoping someone like.. Melvin will win the belt. Edgar, Maynard, and G-Sot all have great wrestling.

 

And he will never win another belt sadly enough. I love watching him fight, but I think that this cut is going to hurt him.

Gotta disagree with you on the fact that G-Sot has great wrestling - he has amazing BJJ - but his wrestling is nothing to brag about. Having great wrestling would mean he would be taking guys like Maynard, Edgar, Penn, or Sherk down, which i could see him doing that to none of those guys.....

Let me revise my prior statement. He has efficient wrestling. From what I've seen.. it is very rare for someone to get a sprawl on him.

 

I like the way he uses crisp boxing to open up his ground game.

Great talks, and I agree with you Tacoma G-Sot does have efficient wrestling and he's showing flashes of briliance in that does it off of his crisp boxing, which is what wrestling for mma has to be about. As for Kenny cutting down, I think you are on to something about Kenny's muay thai and his reach advantage at FW, but he will be slow and although he'd have the reach I hope he doesn't gas and can keep FW like Aldo, Gamburyan, and Brown away from him with the jab. However, he'll have trouble not only with the wrestling but will now have to worry about speed too. And I mean we all know speed kills, and Aldo is like speedy gonzalez of mma. I just have this idea of Florian trying to keep Aldo at bay and him ducking under his jabs and crosses and coming up to destroy him once he's in reach. Not to mention the leg kicks!

I truly believe Florian will just be a gatekeeper at 145 as well.

I don't know about Kenny being a gatekeeper at FW...He's probably the 3rd or 4th best LW in the world depending if you still rank BJ Penn in that division...He'd be a top 5 FW and give anyone in the world trouble