UFC 91: Florian Wins Title Shot with Victory over Stevenson

Fighters.com’s seventh-ranked lightweight “KenFlo” Kenny Florian (11-3) scored a victory with a rear naked choke of “Daddy” Joe Stevenson (29-8) at 4:03 of the first round in a fast-paced lightweight match-up at UFC 91 in Las Vegas Saturday night.

“I want to come out here and make a statement,” Florian announced after the fight.  “I want B.J.’s belt!”

UFC President Dana White had promised the winner a title shot versus UFC and Fighters.com’s Lightweight Champion “Prodigy” B.J. Penn (13-4-1).

For Florian, it’ll be his second shot at the UFC belt.  Florian lost a unanimous decision to fifth-ranked “Muscle Shark” Sean Sherk (33-3-1) for the UFC title at UFC 64 in October 2006.

Florian started the action with a left low kick.  Both fighters were quick on their feet as they exchanged blows.  Florian caught Stevenson with a high kick; but, Stevenson stalked him after landing a few punches.

Stevenson pinned Florian to the cage, picked him up, and slammed him; but, Florian cushioned the impact by grabbing the fence, earning him a warning from the referee.

They got back up and separated.  Florian threw a couple of jabs and a high kick to the head; but, Stevenson advanced aggressively, putting on some pressure of his own.

Avoiding the clinch, Florian tripped Stevenson to the mat.  Passing Stevenson’s guard into full mount, Florian dropped fists into Stevenson’s face.  As Stevenson tried to avoid, he gave up his back.

“I just made a small mistake,” Stevenson admitted after the fight.  “I tried to come to my feet when I shouldn’t have, thought that I was going to be able to just come up.  He had a figure-four body lock.  That was a bad idea.”

Florian capitalized and sank in a tight rear naked choke.

“He made me pay for it,” said Stevenson.  “My fault.”