Inside Access: Kenny Florian’s Road to UFC 87

August 28, 2008

#1 UFC lightweight title contender Kenny Florian (left) and his strength and conditioning coach Kevin Kearns

This is a behind the scenes look at Team Florian on the road to victory in Minneapolis, MN the site of UFC 87 earlier this month. Preparing for a fight starts much earlier than you may think.

On the team we have a mantra that I first drilled into Kenny’s head two years ago when we began working together: “There is no off season”.

If you want to be a pro it‘s very important that you act like one at all times. Tom Brady and Tiger Woods are not going out partying for weeks on end after they finish their latest competition. They stay in shape all season long.

This is generally a big problem for most fighters. You let them “off the chain” and they go nuts and gain 30 lbs over their fight weight.
Not a smart practice in my opinion. Kenny, like many an athlete, is a genetically gifted.

His gift is that he has the heart of a marathon runner; it does not quit. One of his other gifts is he packs on muscle quickly.

Since we started working together, coming up on two years ago, he has packed on 12 lbs of muscle and lost 5 % of his body fat. You might say that’s not much but in my experience, without steroids those results are unreal.

Although increasing lean muscle mass and decreasing body fat is ultimately a goal for all of us, it can create problems for fighters that have to cut weight before a fight.

The leaner an athlete the tighter the cut. You have to be on top of everything you do the weeks before and the week of the fight in order to make weight.

Monitoring food and water intake is critical during fight week. This monitoring is a large part of what I do for Kenny, the whole team, and my other fighters.

UFC 87 was a pivotal point in Kenny’s career. He wanted to show his opponent Roger Huerta, “a whole new level”.
So as his coaches and teammates we all had to bring our games to the next level as well. For me that was actually playing chef for Kenny, his brother Keith and some of the other guys that roomed with me.

As luck would have it, a Residence Inn, equipped with a kitchen in our room, was just one block away from Kenny’s hotel. And that is where I set up what we jokingly called, KHOP ( Kevin’s house of pancakes).

Although until weigh in day, Kenny would not see a whiff of those light fluffy buttermilk treats. Sorry bro, Dr. Evil’s orders.

Normally what I do for fight is fly in five days before with my buddy Scott Rehm. We are the ground control group.
Our job is to get know the hotel staff, the chefs, managers, gyms, etc. We want everything to run as smooth as possible. This way Kenny can focus on what he needs to do and not the BS.

Florian has plenty to worry about during the week of a fight without having to deal with logistics. That’s where team members like Kearns come in

Generally I will get to know the kitchen staff and work with them on eliminating hidden sodium and fat. The word going into the fight week from my counterpart Jesse Kropelneki, Kenny’s sports nutritionist, was that Kenny would have a 7lb to 9lb cut the day of weigh ins.

I refused to let this happen. Since we were at the Residence Inn, which has a full kitchen, I decided to cook all of Kenny’s meals. Well, at least as much as he could tolerate from me.

The first place my buddy Scott and I went once we landed was Whole Foods. Kenny likes to eat as clean as possible.

We loaded up on eggs, egg whites, ground turkey breast, chicken, fage, fruit, and veggies. And oh yeah, a lot of spices. My boy likes his stuff wicked spicy.

By the time we arrived back from shopping around 1 pm, I immediately started cooking my butt off. I boiled three dozen - eggs for him.

Then I made Kenny and Keith a chicken stir fir with spinach, onions and garlic. They were arriving at 3:30pm and I wanted the food ready.

Florian (right) poses with opponent Roger Huerta during the Thursday press conference

Our new friends were Amy and Nick Mathewson, the managers at the Residence Inn. They both were indispensable all week.

Nick covered everything for us. The refill eatery after the weigh in, cabs, shopping, and list continues.

When Kenny and Keith arrived the food was ready and still hot. He ate, we checked his weight and I went into overdrive. I pulled out my binder and went through what we needed to do for food and water for the day.

Kenny knows what needs to get done; I’m there to remind him along the way. My start time on Tuesday is was 4:30am. I went to bed at 12:30am.

The Wednesday start time was 8:00am. Upon waking I immediately made breakfast for Scott and myself. Then I went to work on making Kenny spicy ground turkey with green beans.

Around 10:30 that morning I received a text from Kenny, “ Fage and blueberries would be great”. Fage is Greek yogurt that is very high in protein and low in fat.

I walked my two blocks over to his place, checked my watch to see when Peter Welch and Kru Mark DellaGrotte were coming in and thought to myself, “I should have lunch ready for them as well.”

The rest of the day I spent cooking and running errands for whatever we needed. At about 10:45pm I finished with Kenny and was having a drink in the Marriott with some friends, and again my phone goes off with a text message.

It’s Kenny. “I would really like an egg white omelet with spinach and onions”.
I texted him back, “No problem. In 20 minutes.”

I rushed back to my room and started cooking again. I made it back to Kenny by 11:20pm. Kenny ate and got some stretching work done. Wednesday ended at 1:45pm for me.

My Thursday start time was 8:30am. Thursday was pretty much the same pace as the two days before it except we had a new roomy that came in; boxing coach Peter Welch.
He likes to call me “Little Emeril” when I start going nuts in the kitchen. Also some friends came in to watch the fight; Keith Thompson from Tristar martial arts in Maryland and Tim Barchard form Tim Barchard’s Professional martial arts in Derry, NH.

They both are big fans of Kenny’s and clients and friends of mine. After taking care of breakfast for Peter, Kenny, and myself I ran into my friend Bruce Connal from ESPN who wanted to workout.

So we assembled a small group
together of Zuffa employees, ESPN employees and other friends and I gave them a micro seminar. After various running around which included cooking, recording, and stretching Kenny, my Thursday ended at 12:15am.

Friday was D-DAY! Time for the weigh ins. Kenny’s weight had been coming down quite gradually and I was confident it would only be around a 6lb cut. My day started at 7:30am.

I cooked breakfast for whoever was up and ran a few last minute detail errands. Around 10:00am Kenny texted me that we are going to the prelim weigh in. We get the numbers; he has to cut 6.5 lbs, much better than 9lbs. After a brief organization meeting with the team we all get everything we need for the cut.

The cut time started at 12:30pm and the weigh in was at 3:30pm. Before finishing the cut Alex Karalexis showed up to help.

This is the toughest day for Kenny, he says of it, “this is <i>why</i> I get paid, fight day is <i>when</i> I get paid.” Although this part sucks for him, he has told me he considers it a right of passage, like walking through fire.

We had one big hiccup with the cut. I gave the bag with our scale to Alex.

This scale is necessary so that we know we are on target with his weight. The bag opened on the way back to the hotel room and the scale broke.

I saw the look on Kenny’s face. His stress level had just gone up two more notches. No one wants to cut weight and arrive at the weigh in and realize they did not cut enough. We encouraged Kenny that the last check was accurate, “you are on the money.”

I’m fortunate to be the one Kenny brings with him to weigh ins. I carry his food for afterwards and anything else he needs.

For me it is an honor and it’s what he and I had been trying do all week; make the weight on the mark. I could feel his level of stress as we waited in line. I could not blame him; I can only imagine what was running through his mind, plus the fact that his opponent was right in front of him.

Kenny weighed in at 155.5lbs at 4:02pm. I could feel the sense of relief come over him and me as well.

Although he still had the thought to look at me and pat me on the back. No words needed to be said. I knew what he meant.

“Good job and I could not have done it without you.”
My answer would have been, “thanks but this is a team effort, and you did the work bro.”

Editor’s Note - Florian went on to win a unanimous decision over Roger Huerta at UFC 87, establishing himself as the clear number one challenger to lightweight champion BJ Penn

Fight Week Photos: