UFC light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has revealed that he enlisted the help of his ‘UFC Tonight’ co-host Kenny Florian during his training camp to prepare for his upcoming title rematch with Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson at UFC 210.
“He’s great,” Cormier said of Florian. “The guy’s a third-degree black belt for a reason. There are little details he showed me that I’ve implemented with a lot of success in my sparring already. In the past, Kenny would send me fight breakdowns. Now he’s made his presence known at AKA. I value Kenny as a friend, as a partner and now as a coach.”
Florian fought in no less than four division during his own UFC career, starting at middleweight, where he was a finalist on The Ultimate Fighter Season 1, before gradually moving down in weight to welterweight and then lightweight.
It was at 155lbs that he would really establish himself as a top contender, fighting for the lightweight title twice during an 8-3 run, defeating the likes of Joe Lauzon, Clay Guida, Takanori Gomi and Roger Huera along the way.
‘Ken-Flo’ then dropped once again to featherweight, but came up short in a title challenge against Jose Aldo and had to end his career prematurely after that due to a back injury, hanging up his glove with an overall 14-6 record.
Cormier will no doubt be hoping the tips and tricks he’s learned from Florian will help him emerge victorious for a second time against Johnson, who he defeated by submission at UFC 187 in 2015.
