Kenny Florian: Ready to Put Penn “Through Hell”

Florian ready to make the most of this championship opportunity.

Kenny Florian is not one for circus tricks.

While BJ Penn has released several videos, from jumping out of a pool to bringing in a Florian look-alike to train with, Florian has gone about training quietly.

“A lot of these things that BJ does, I don’t know if he does it for his ego or his people or whatever,” Florian told MMAMadness.com. “I’ll show him what the plan is on fight day.”

While preparing his game plan, Florian traveled to Canada to train with Georges St. Pierre, who handed Penn a loss last January in dominant fashion. The change of scenery has helped Florian take his game to another level.

“Anytime you get a chance to train with the best guy pound-for-pound in the world, it’s going to help you,” Florian said. “Training at that high level, experiencing that type of intensity and pressure, it takes you to the next level.”

Florian has also found that mixing in new sparring partners at St. Pierre’s camp has added made his training uncomfortable, but in a positive way.

“Even if you have the best guys in the world that you’re training with, you get comfortable with each other,” Florian explained. “You learn the weaknesses and the strengths of each other. Naturally, you start to gear your training and your sparring that way.”

“When you go with guys you haven’t gone with before, it gives you that new element, almost like it’s a fight. You get the butterflies a little bit, it gives you that unknown you’re not used to.”

Florian says that he is in the best shape of his life, and feels that he can compete with any fighter in the world. Much of his improvements can be credited to coach Mark DellaGrotte, but an equal, if not greater, amount of credit should go to Florian’s brother, Keith.

“A lot of people don’t realize it, but Keith probably plays the biggest role,” Florian said. “I train with Keith more than anyone. Keith is the big strategy guy. He puts all the pieces together and obviously he’s my jiu jitsu coach and my MMA coach along with DellaGrotte. He watches more tape than anyone I know.”

Part of Florian’s game plan is to be prepared to beat Penn wherever the fight goes.
“I’m ready to fight him on the feet, on the ground,” Florian said. “I have to be well rounded and be ready for anything that happens out there. To beat a guy like [Penn] you have to be on par or better than him.”
 
One thing Florian does know is that he is ready to give Penn a war.

“I’m ready to go through hell and I’m ready to put my opponent through hell,” Florian said. “I’m more than confident that it’s going to go my way, but if BJ’s going to beat me, he’s gonna have to go through hell, that’s for sure.” “

“I’m going to try and make his life as miserable for every second that he’s in there.”

Cameron Gidari is the Associate Editor at MMAMadness.com. He can be reached with questions and comments at cgidari@mmamadness.com.