Kenny Florian is an MMA legend, who fought for the UFC title in two weight classes and on three different occasions.
He retired at a 14-6 record and is now a color-commentator and analyst for the sport.
Florian also has been training Jiu-Jitsu for a long time.
In a recent interview for Fight Untold, he revealed that he fell in love with BJJ during a Royce Gracie seminar:
For me, any time I saw a martial arts movie, those were the real superheroes to me. That’s who I wanted to be, that’s who I looked up to.
So when I met Royce Gracie for the first time I think I was probably in awe a little bit. I was surprised that he was actually a little bit bigger than I had thought, he was still lanky. But he’s like 6’1, 6’2, a decent-sized guy.
He had a certain presence about him that I liked. He was definitely very confident and there was a look in his eyes that told you not to mess with him, no matter what.
There was kind’ve a darkness there that you knew not to challenge.My brother and I were just so intrigued, and we did that seminar, and we literally trained Jiu-Jitsu every single day since that moment.
Kenny Florian became obsessed about Jiu-Jitsu from that moment on:
I couldn’t stop thinking about Jiu-Jitsu. Whether I was about to go to sleep, when I woke up, when I was in the shower, when I was in school.
That’s all I wanted to do, that’s all I wanted to think about.There was this obsession that was connected with that.
