Florian ready for comeback

By Steve Sievert

Lightweight remains upbeat after brutal defeat

Kenny Florian was on the wrong end of one of the worst beatings in the Ultimate Fighting Championship last year.

In an October bout for the lightweight title at UFC 64, a stronger and more experienced Sean Sherk schooled Florian for five rounds en route to a unanimous-decision victory. The loss snapped a three-fight win streak for the overmatched Florian, who had made a quick leap from fighting on the reality show The Ultimate Fighter to challenging for a UFC crown.

While some fighters reject the premise "a defeat can make you better," Florian believes he came out of the bout with valuable lessons learned.

"Very few fighters get the opportunity to fight a five-round fight, let alone go five rounds, so that alone was something I could take away," said the Boston-based fighter. "Also, dealing with a frustrating opponent who was on top of you all the time, grinding out the win."

After battling a back injury that limited him to just two fights in 2006 and kept him from being less than 100 percent in the title fight, Florian decided to step up his approach to mixed martial arts. He hired a full-time strength and conditioning coach to get his back healthy and improve his overall fitness level.

Meanwhile, Florian's in-the-cage training has been focused on improving his ability to avoid the takedown, a weakness that kept him on the defensive all night against Sherk.

"I've been working on adjusting my stance, posture and fighting style to deal with takedowns," Florian said. "It was no mystery that Sean Sherk was good at takedowns, and it was something that I was working on prior to the fight. But, I've really adjusted to where I am a lot more efficient now. I've changed my drills and a lot of my strength and conditioning training sessions revolve around that."

The improved takedown defense will get a stern test in Florian's next fight against Dokonjonosuke Mishima on Thursday at Ultimate Fight Night 9. Mishima (17-5-2) is relatively new to the octagon, but his approach is similar to Sherk's. He will look to get Florian to the ground and tee off.

"This isn't an easy comeback fight by any means, and I don't want it to be," Florian said. "I'm taking this fight as a personal challenge, because I know he's going to have the same game plan as Sean. It's going to be something where I can prove that I can avoid the takedowns and knock him out."

Sounds good on paper, but the cerebral Florian, who graduated from Boston College with a degree in communications, realizes he has a mental mountain to climb after being dominated by Sherk. Some fighters — the most recent poster boy is David Loiseau — are never the same after that kind of defeat.

Loiseau was one of the top middleweights in the world before he was knocked all over the octagon for five rounds by Rich Franklin.

Loiseau looked like a shell of his former self in his next two fights — both lopsided losses.

"The way I train and the way I prepare myself mentally, I just refuse to let those things happen," said Florian (7-3). "I put things into perspective pretty well, and I am confident in my abilities.

"If anything, it's just going to make me more aggressive and determined."

Florian and Mishima fight in the co-feature of UFN 9, with Joe Stevenson and Melvin Guillard facing off in the other headliner from the Palms Casino in Las Vegas.

Fight week in Houston
With UFC 69 scheduled for Saturday at Toyota Center, the UFC has set the agenda for fight week events to get fans ready for Houston's first big-league mixed martial arts show.

UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture will headline a group of UFC fighters participating in a free autograph session from 1 to 3 p.m. Friday at the Hilton Americas-Houston.

The weigh-in for UFC 69 will follow at 3 p.m. at Root Memorial Basketball Court, across from Toyota Center on La Branch.

UFC 69 will get under way at about 7:30 p.m. Saturday, with the pay-per-view portion of the card beginning at 9 p.m.

More than 11,000 tickets have been sold for the show, with total attendance, including suites and ticket giveaways, expected to be around 15,000.

We will have a complete UFC 69 preview this week.