• Home
  • Features
  • BJJ News
  • MMA
  • Interviews
  • Shop
  • Giveaway
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Features
  • BJJ News
  • MMA
  • Interviews
  • Shop
  • Giveaway
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
Home MMA

Kenny Florian On Meeting Royce Gracie And Starting Jiu-Jitsu

Alex Lindsey by Alex Lindsey
February 27, 2023
in MMA
0
Kenny Florian Jiu-Jitsu Royce Gracie
45
SHARES
375
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Kenny Florian is an MMA legend and he has a long history of being in love with the art of Jiu-Jitsu, that can be traced all the way back to his first meeting with Royce Gracie. Florian became a professional MMA fighter in 2003 and put together a 2-1 record before becoming part of the very first season of The Ultimate Fighter. He made it all the way to the final and although he didn’t win, he earned a UFC contract and quickly became a fan-favourite. Throughout his career he fought for a UFC title in two weightclasses and on three different occasions, before retiring with a 14-6 record and turning to life as a colour-commentator and analyst for the sport.

Kenny Florian recently sat down with Charles Yao from the Fight Untold for a lengthy interview and the topic turned to a Jiu-Jitsu seminar he had with Royce Gracie when he was younger:

“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.”

Although Kenny Florian explains that he had plenty of experience with various martial arts throughout his youth, it was the discovery of Jiu-Jitsu from Royce Gracie that quickly took over his life:

“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. All of these feelings that I had when I was a kid when I was doing martial arts, which to me was the closest thing to a religious experience, bubbled to the surface again. I was like ‘man, I’m doing this again. I have to do this again'”

The full interview with Kenny Florian where he explains his first meeting with Royce Gracie and how that led to him training Jiu-Jitsu for the entirety of his life was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of Fight Untold:

Tags: Kenny Florian
Previous Post

The Art Of Coaching And Cornering In BJJ

Next Post

Lex Fridman Explains Which BJJ Belt He Found The Hardest To Earn

Alex Lindsey

Alex Lindsey

Alex Lindsey is the managing editor at JitsMagazine after previously holding the same position at Grappling Insider, and is a current staff writer for Bloody Elbow. Having started training and competing in MMA at 16, he's focused on BJJ for the majority of his time after that and is now a brown belt.

Related Posts

Gilbert Burns FBI Investigate MMA Judge
MMA

Gilbert Burns Wants FBI To Investigate MMA Judge

by Todd Blackett
March 29, 2023
Mica Galvao MMA Rodolfo Vieira
MMA

Mica Galvao Starts Training MMA With Rodolfo Vieira

by Kian Rogers
March 28, 2023
Luke Rockhold Grappling NBA Tim Duncan
MMA

Watch Luke Rockhold Having Fun Grappling With NBA Legend Tim Duncan

by Alex Lindsey
March 28, 2023
MMA Fighter Choked Out Armbarred Referee Inaction
MMA

Watch MMA Fighter Choked Out, Then Armbarred Due To Referee Inaction

by Todd Blackett
March 25, 2023
Rani Yahya Fifth Degree BJJ Black Belt
MMA

ADCC Champion And UFC Veteran Rani Yahya Promoted To Fifth Degree BJJ Black Belt

by Kian Rogers
March 24, 2023
Next Post
Lex Fridman BJJ Belt

Lex Fridman Explains Which BJJ Belt He Found The Hardest To Earn

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Premium Content

IBJJF heelhooks reaping 2021

It’s Official, Heelhooks And Reaping Are Coming To The IBJJF In 2021

October 11, 2020
Bo Nickal Khamzat Chimaev Fight

Bo Nickal Says Fight With Khamzat Chimaev Is ‘Inevitable’

March 3, 2023
UFC Referee Marc Goddard Second Degree BJJ Black Belt

UFC Referee Marc Goddard Promoted To Second Degree BJJ Black Belt

January 13, 2023

Browse by Category

  • BJJ News
  • Features
  • Interviews
  • MMA

Browse by Tags

ADCC ADCC 2022 ADCC Trials Andre Galvao ATOS Bellator Celebrity BJJ Combat Jiu-Jitsu Craig Jones Danaher Death Squad Felipe Pena Ffion Davies Fight 2 Win Garry Tonon Gordon Ryan Gracie Family IBJJF John Danaher Judo Kade Ruotolo Kaynan Duarte Law Enforcement Lucas 'Hulk' Barbosa Mason Fowler Mikey Musumeci Nicky Rodriguez Oliver Taza ONE Championship Opinion Pieces Pedro Marinho PFL Polaris Polaris Squads Roberto Jimenez Submission Underground Team Grappling Third Coast Grappling Throwback Tye Ruotolo UFC Who's Number One William Tackett Women's BJJ Women's MMA Wrestling
Jitsmagazine.com

Your home for the latest BJJ and grappling news.

Categories

  • BJJ News
  • Features
  • Interviews
  • MMA

Browse by Tag

ADCC ADCC 2022 ADCC Trials Andre Galvao ATOS Bellator Celebrity BJJ Combat Jiu-Jitsu Craig Jones Danaher Death Squad Felipe Pena Ffion Davies Fight 2 Win Garry Tonon Gordon Ryan Gracie Family IBJJF John Danaher Judo Kade Ruotolo Kaynan Duarte Law Enforcement Lucas 'Hulk' Barbosa Mason Fowler Mikey Musumeci Nicky Rodriguez Oliver Taza ONE Championship Opinion Pieces Pedro Marinho PFL Polaris Polaris Squads Roberto Jimenez Submission Underground Team Grappling Third Coast Grappling Throwback Tye Ruotolo UFC Who's Number One William Tackett Women's BJJ Women's MMA Wrestling

Recent Posts

  • Gilbert Burns Wants FBI To Investigate MMA Judge
  • Mica Galvao And Other Elite Grapplers To Compete At Majestic BJJ 3
  • Zayed Alkatheeri On What It Means To Be First UAE Athlete To Win IBJJF Major

© 2020 JitsMagazine.com

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Features
  • BJJ News
  • MMA
  • Interviews
  • Shop
  • Giveaway

© 2020 JitsMagazine.com

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?