GUT REACTION

Kenny “Ken-Flo” Florian continued to impress last night in Broomfield, Co at UFC Fight Night. He looked very sharp and I’m not just talking about those elbows. It was the elbows (some of which were illegal) that cut the back of the head of opponent Joe Lauzon. While the cuts didn’t seem to really affect Lauzon (he probably even won the 1st rd) once Kenny got the mount in rd 2 Joe couldn’t find a way out. Finally referee Herb Dean had no choice but to step in after a barrage of unanswered shots being dropped down by Florian. So what’s this mean for “Ken-Flo”? I would like to see an opponent like Roger Huerta or possibly B.J Penn (providing he gets passed Sean Sherk). For Lauzon, at only 23 years old he’s going to be around for a while, even the best fighters lose and there’s no shame in losing to a guy the caliber of Florian.
As for the rest of the night, there were some surprising out comes. James Irvin broke a UFC record with his 8 second KO of Houston Alexander. Are these guys starting to figure Alexander out? It’s hard to say, you cant tell much in 8 seconds. Gray Maynard looked great beating Frankie Edgar. This win for Gray will certainly open some eyes, after all Edgar has beaten guys like Tyson Griffin and Spencer Fisher. Karo Parisyan was stopped for the first time in his UFC career when Thiago Alves caught him with a knee to the jaw followed by strikes on the ground Parisyan couldn’t defend. Matt Hamill’s TKO win over Tim Boetsch probably didn’t do much in moving him up the Light-Heavyweight ladder, as Boetsch is still relatively unknown, but it certainly wont hurt him. I would still like to see Hamill in there with a guy like Tito or Rashad to see what he’s really made of. Nate Diaz, who looked like he would be finished in the 1st rd, really turned things around in the 2nd. After being slammed to the ground by opponent Kurt Pellegrino he locked in a Triangle Choke forcing Pellegrino to tap. I’m not sure if there was any bad blood between these two leading up to the fight, but as Diaz knew he had the choke in tight he managed to give Pellegrino an “unprecedented double-middle-finger-flip off” on national TV. Dana must be proud. Another great night of fights and April 19th is just around the corner.