Kenny Florian Praises Bruce Souto’s Performance, Reflects on First PFL Challenger Series Show

Last Friday, Professional Fighters League introduced audiences to its latest format, the PFL Challenger Series. Out of eight contestants, one fighter secured a contract for the upcoming regular season. In the first event, Brazil’s Bruce Souto impressed the celebrity panelists and the fans at home thanks to a first-round knockout of Travis Davis with just 17 seconds left. One of the people who appreciated the finish was former Ultimate Fighting Championship title challenger Kenny Florian, who witnessed it from the PFL commentary booth.

“Although he didn’t have a perfect performance either, I thought it was impressive that he showed his ability to bounce back from adversity, his ability to deal with things not going so well,” Florian told Sherdog. “I thought that it was also impressive, the fact that he could have easily… I think there was like, maybe just a few seconds left in that round. He could have easily just backed off and regrouped, waited to get to Round 2, and sat on his stool, ‘OK, OK, what do I need to do?,’ and kind of relaxed and recomposed himself. But he decided to really go for it. He was like, ‘No, I’m gonna try to win this round, I’m gonna try to win this fight right now.’ I thought it showed a lot about his character and how badly he wanted that contract. That’s probably what impressed me the most.”

In the same interview, 45-year-old Florian discussed the approaching 10th anniversary of his retirement, revealed whether fans will ever see him transitioning to other disciplines than mixed martial arts, weighed in on the pacing of the first Challenger Series card, and more.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro
(00:57) His thoughts on the first PFL Challenger Series
(01:59) Commenting on Bruce Souto’s performance
(03:15) The last-minute changes to the card
(03:57) Joshua Silveira not getting a contract
(05:54) How Silveira handled Mohammed Juba’s relentless faults
(07:12) The fighter who impressed him the most so far
(08:18) The weight class he is most interested in
(09:40) Analyzing Jarrah Al-Silawi vs. Michael Lilly
(10:42) Commenting on the pacing of the Challenger Series broadcast
(12:06) The celebrity panelists will rotate each week
(12:46) Whether he ever wanted to make an MMA return in the 10 years since his retirement
(14:56) Whether he considered transitioning to another discipline than MMA
(17:06) Outro

Tudor Leonte started writing about mixed martial arts in 2013 for Italian media outlets. His journey with Sherdog began in 2018 and he now covers One Championship and countless European shows. You can follow him on Twitter @MrTudorLeonte.