Keith Florian: 'Kenny’s loss to Maynard wasn't about choking, but about wrestling'

There were some pretty direct comments made towards Kenny Florian following his loss to Gray Maynard at UFC 118, many focused on him faltering in the biggest moments of his career.

UFC president Dana White commented on Florian's inability to get the win on Saturday night, which was for a shot at the lightweight title, comparing it to the problems he's faced in previous match-ups, like Sean Sherk and B.J. Penn.

"Kenny's just one of those guys that chokes in big fights," White told MMAWeekly.com following UFC 118.

"I love Kenny. I'm not badmouthing him, or trying to disrespect him, I'm just being honest. Every time it's a big fight, and there's a lot of things on the line, Kenny just... Kenny Florian's hands are unbelievable, Kenny Florian's ground is unbelievable, Kenny Florian usually kicks you to the body and the legs so hard that he busts guys up. You didn't see any of that tonight."

Florian's head coach and brother, Keith Florian, spoke to MMAWeekly.com about White’s comments. He believes that Kenny’s loss to Maynard wasn't about choking, but about wrestling.

"Honestly my reaction is Dana is just being Dana. I just don't know if he really understands the little nuances of what's going on in the fight, I think he's really just looking at things for face value. If you look back it's more of a wrestling thing than anything else. The fight against Sherk, at that time Sherk was a better fighter, that's it. B.J. took him down, and Gray took him down again. It's just a matter of wrestling, that's what we need to work on," said Keith.

"We need to get it so engrained in his head that it becomes muscle memory."

Between rounds, Keith, along with Firas Zahabi, implored their fighter to reach down and find a sense of urgency, especially going into the final five minutes, as he was likely down two rounds to none.

"It's really tough when you want to throw, and you want to throw hard. You want to throw something that's going to knock your opponent out, and also thinking that in the back of your head, if I do that I'm going to get taken down," Keith explained.

"That being said, no one really knows what's going on in a fighter's mind or what exactly is going on unless you're in the cage with that person at that time. In between rounds, especially between the second and third, Firas said 'get in the middle of that Octagon and throw' and you'll hear me 'we need a finish' and we weren't trying to sugar coat anything. We told him what we needed to do."

The end result was Florian losing a three-round decision to Maynard, who will now go on to challenge Frankie Edgar in his next fight for the UFC lightweight championship. Looking at his brother's progression over the last few years, Keith knows that there is one glaring issue, and this isn't the first time it's come back to bite them.

"We're obviously not doing enough wrestling and it's showing," he said. "I made a comment in the Boston Herald and I'll say the same comment to you, he proved in the last two fights that his wrestling has improved. Not only did (Clay) Guida not take him down, but he took Guida down. He's the only person to do this, and Guida's taken down every single opponent beforehand. And Kenny stopped him and took him down. Gomi is also a wrestler back in Japan, and he took him down too.

"Obviously, Gray's at a different level, and we need to be prepared for any and every level, and not just very good wrestlers, or good wrestlers, or mediocre wrestlers. We need to be prepared for the absolute best wrestlers."

Looking back at the fight, Keith agreed with the decision, but also believes that the criteria for how rounds are scored has to be looked at.

In the first round with under a minute to go, Maynard got a takedown on Florian after not much damage was done earlier in the round. Many credit that lone takedown as Maynard getting the nod for the first five minutes.

Keith says that Maynard fought brilliantly, and he credits him and his coaches for doing exactly what they did on Saturday night.

"There's no question by the rules that they're playing with right now that Gray won that fight," he explained. "I'm not trying to take anything away from him, he played an absolutely beautiful game plan. If Kenny had the skills Gray had, I would have done the exact same thing fighting Kenny."

What Keith doesn't like very much are the descriptions getting tossed around about his brother's performance that made it seem like a one-sided drubbing with Maynard walking through him on his way to the title shot.

"People love to throw around the word 'destroyed,' people love to throw around the word 'dominated,' people love to throw these words around, but just look at the first four minutes of the first round, and you tell me who's winning," said Keith.

"He really didn't get hit very hard on the bottom. People love to throw around those words 'dominated, destroyed, overwhelming.' It's a (expletive) joke."

Going back to the drawing board, Keith says his brother will take a little time off to recover both physically and mentally, and then head back to the gym where they will formulate their next plan of attack. Even if it means 40 hours a week in the wrestling room, Keith is determined to make sure the same mistakes are never repeated.

"I think what we need to do in a week or a week and a half, is just come back together and see what's going on. The wheels are in motion that we are going to get a serious wrestling coach involved, and it's going to be immediate. We're going to bring wrestlers in or Kenny's going out to a wrestling camp or a wrestling team and that's a fact," Keith stated.

Admitting that it's tough to compete with wrestlers who have been doing that sport for most of their natural lives, Kenny has to find a way to compete with them. If they've got 20 years of experience wrestling, then he needs to work just as hard to catch up to them.

"It's a numbers game and he needs more numbers," Keith said.

The Boston area fighter will head back to Florian Martial Arts and begin working on the strategy that will find answers to the problems he couldn’t' solve on Saturday night, and then plot his return to the Octagon for another run at the lightweight title.

-I have to agree. Florian is as well rounded as they come except for that glaring hold that top tier wrestlers take advantage of time and time again. Its pretty obvious. I might add that they could look at a different apporach to his strength and conditioning program as well. The only fights he loses seem to be against guys who overpower and outwrestle him.