KenFlo confirms drop to 145lb division

http://www.espn.co.uk/espn/sport/story/72928.html?CMP=OTC-RSS

After toying with the idea, Kenny Florian has decided to move to the featherweight division this year.

I think if he can make the weight in a healthy condition it is definetly a good move for him. Don't see him getting Aldo straight away, maybe a contender match to tune up first.

How do you think he KenFlo will do at 145? Who do you think would be a good match-up apart from Aldo?

Featherweight is easily the weakest division in the UFC.

To get a title shot at Lightweight, Ken would have to beat at least two top 5 guys.
The UFC doesn't have any other top 5 Featherweights than Aldo. Definitely a smart move if Ken wants to be a genuine contender. The UFC Lightweight division has too much talent for him.

Injuries pending I reckon Kenflo will be fighting for the title by the end of the year. Lets see if he chokes this time round.

Ryu is back. How did the tournament go?

Went well SP, placed third in my belt/weight class. Guy that's beat me went on to take gold. Great experience, definetly going to start going to more international comps. Got Bristol open at the end of this month too.

good stuff bud i imagine it to have been invaluable experience, good luck for Bristol. If you got time as well Ryu then post predictions on here as well as MMAPLAYGROUND its worth it.

Mryzyz wrote:Featherweight is easily the weakest division in the UFC.

To get a title shot at Lightweight, Ken would have to beat at least two top 5 guys.
The UFC doesn't have any other top 5 Featherweights than Aldo. Definitely a smart move if Ken wants to be a genuine contender. The UFC Lightweight division has too much talent for him.

Don't think featherweight is the weakest division in the UFC at all. Heavyweight, middleweight and light heavyweight are weaker. The true strength of a division is shown outside it's top 10. There's about 15 really skilled heavyweights in the world who vie for the top 10. Same for light heavyweight. Lightweight has about 25 guys who could easily at some point make the top 10. Featherweight is about the same. If there aren't a lot of top 10 featherweights in the UFC it's because of the way the wins of other fighters stack up. As we say with Mendes-Omigawa, guys like Nunes, Koch and Poirier could easily take out some of the more established names globally.

ken flo will be good at any of the lighter divisions until he fights guys ranked about 5th then he will choke.

'The true strength of a division is shown outside it's top 10.'

Errr... no.

And besides, the UFC doesn't have, arguably, any top 30 Featherweights outside their top ten.

% of top 5, % of top 10, % of top 25...

Whichever way you look at it, the UFC has less of a grip on the top Featherweight talent than they have on their other divisions. Even Heavyweight.

'If there aren't a lot of top 10 featherweights in the UFC it's because of the way the wins of other fighters stack up'

Errr... yeah.

Hioki, Bibiano, Takaya et al. all have better wins than all the UFC Featherweight contenders. Hence their perceived superiority. Your point being...?

Mryzyz wrote:'The true strength of a division is shown outside it's top 10.'

Errr... no.

And besides, the UFC doesn't have, arguably, any top 30 Featherweights outside their top ten.

% of top 5, % of top 10, % of top 25...

Whichever way you look at it, the UFC has less of a grip on the top Featherweight talent than they have on their other divisions. Even Heavyweight.

'If there aren't a lot of top 10 featherweights in the UFC it's because of the way the wins of other fighters stack up'

Errr... yeah.

Hioki, Bibiano, Takaya et al. all have better wins than all the UFC Featherweight contenders. Hence their perceived superiority. Your point being...?

Baffling claim.

The fact that the UFC has less top 10 featherweights than they have top 10 fighters in other divisions speaks to the global strength of the division.

There aren't tons of fighters outside the UFC who have looked dominant anyway. Omigawa, who was regarded as top 5, just got comprehensively beaten by Mendes who was floating around outside the top 10. The only real notables outside the UFC are Takaya, Sandro, Warren, Fernandes and Hioki.

Are Takaya's wins that good? He's beaten Hansen who's not proven at featherweight, and Bebe who doesn't have any relevant wins since 2007. Tokoro had Takaya in massive trouble, and as much as I love Tokoro, he's a bellow average featherweight. Fernandes is a good win, but his recent wins boil down to the same guys, Takaya himself, Hansen and a green Warren. Otsuka and Imanari aren't good featherweight wins. I'm not even convinced Takaya and Fernandes are comfortably top 10, I think they're borderline.

Sandro is quality, but the only actual names on his record are his debatable loss to Omigawa, his win over Kanehara and his loss to Hioki. His other wins were over untested prospects and average guys like Hata and Hoshino. His biggest win is really Kanehara, but Kanehara was gifted his way to the final of the Sengoku tournament, should have lost to Chan Sung Jun and Omigawa, just got stomped by Maeda who isn't really a featherweight.

Warren has good wins but Soto and Freire are his only good wins recently, and he was getting annihilated by both of them and shouldn't really have got the decision over Freire.

Hioki is legitimately very good, and number two in the world, shouldn't have lost to Omigawa.

So who are you putting in your top 5 if you're only ranking Aldo from the UFC? Who are these non-UFC featherweights outside the top 10 who make up the top 30?

Ryu was it the northwest open you went to? loads of guys I train with went to that in liverpool

I think the weight cut will be too much for Kenny, I don't think he'll be able to keep with the pace of some of the faster featherweights in the division, talent wise i'd pick Kenny every time (other than Aldo) but as the fight progresses into the later rounds I feel Kenny will be heavily drained and may not be able to cope with the speed and movement of some of the featherweights. But who knows I could be wrong, with his size he may just be able to smother them and keep the control of the fight. Either way I wish Kenny luck.

I'm not sure how he's going to make the cut either,he looks pretty drained at 155lb.

But if he can cut the weight successfully,he'll be a beast at that weight,he already has some of the best striking at LW and his BJJ is at a pretty high level also.
He struggled in the past with big guys that could control him,like Sherk and maynard did to him.
Well at this weight he'll be the bigger and stronger fighter and won't have to worry about being overpowered or manhandled,plus he'll have a huge reach advantage for his striking game.
I don't think Speed would be much of a issue for him,it's not as if he hasn't fought fast relentless fighters before and beat them.

I reckon this could well be a reaction to being manhandled by Maynard. He had previously spoken about the cut to lightweight being problematic so 145lbs will put serious demands on him. If he's succesful at cutting the weight without drastically hindering his ability to perform I'd back him to beat anyone at featherweight not called Jose Aldo Jnr. Then again, a while ago I would have backed him to beat anyone at lightweight not called BJ Penn...

It will be interesting to see who the UFC will match him up against next. I think they'll want to try and get an Aldo-Florian match somewhere down the line, so i'd imagine they hand pick him an opponent he'd be expected to beat. I just hope Kenny doesn't choke in any more big matches, I don't know where Kenny would go if he was to lose his next fight, atleast he has MMA Live to fall back on to if it all goes wrong.

Albion_Oakley wrote:Ryu was it the northwest open you went to? loads of guys I train with went to that in liverpool

I went to the Europeans in Lisbon mate.

Oh right wicked! how did you do?

edit: you already said, sorry. Good result man!

I honestly think this is a bad move move for Kenny I think the speed of the Mendes's & Aldo's will be too much for him even their grappling credentials although he doesn't have much of a chance at LW I think he has an equally likely chance of success at FW.