Penick's Take
PENICK: Kenny Florian - The Greatest Runner-up in Ultimate Fighter History
Jun 4, 2011 - 4:25:29 PM PENICK: Kenny Florian - The Greatest Runner-up in Ultimate Fighter History

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Earlier this week I posted my power rankings of the 18 winners from 12 seasons of The Ultimate Fighter based on their accomplishments in the UFC and where they're at in their careers now. Tony Ferguson and Ramsey Nijem are fighting on Saturday's Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale to join those 18 fighters, but for the loser of the fight, success in the UFC isn't a guarantee.

While the organization has only released two season-winners from their roster, eight previous runner-ups have been shown the door, with only one fighter establishing himself thus far as a title challenger.

Kenny Florian, who lost in the first finals fight in the show's history, has been the most successful and most consistent runner-up the reality show has ever produced. He may have lost in both of his shots at the UFC Lightweight Championship, but the fact that he made it there even once is a higher mark than any subsequent season runner-up can claim, and his level of success is something to which the loser of tonight's Ferguson-Nijem fight should aspire.

Though season ten runner-up Brendan Schaub has been making strides up the ladder in the heavyweight division, Florian is still the only fighter to truly break out after having lost their season finale.

Florian entered the house for the first season of TUF as an inexperienced 3-1 professional, still very early on in his career. Entering the middleweight tournament, Florian made it to the finals with a surprising win over Chris Leben in the semifinals, which came after Florian opened a nasty cut with a short elbow in the clinch.

He lost to Diego Sanchez in the first-ever Ultimate Fighter finals bout, and the loss immediately prompted a drop to welterweight. He picked up two wins straight wins before the UFC brought back the lightweight division, prompting his second drop in weight.

Stopping a fight for the third straight time with a rear-naked choke submission over Sam Stout, Florian was given a shot at Sean Sherk for the UFC Lightweight Title. It was in this fight with Sherk that Florian's major weakness in wrestling was exposed, with Sherk taking him down throughout the five round fight and taking the unanimous decision.

The title shot was a little too much too soon for Florian, but over the next two years he worked his way towards a second shot, winning six straight fights in increasingly impressive fashion.

This stretch saw him submit Dokonjonosuke Mishima, Din Thomas and Joe Stevenson by rear naked choke, with a submission win due to strikes over Alvin Robinson, a TKO over Joe Lauzon and a one-sided decision win over Roger Huerta added in.

He was sitting with a 9-2 UFC record, including eight stoppages, and the UFC rewarded him with a shot at then Lightweight Champ B.J. Penn.

Again Florian came up short in the big fight, as Penn held off numerous takedown attempts and out-struck Florian in their exchanges on the feet. Ultimately, Florian was submitted in the fourth round by rear naked choke himself.

Consecutive submissions of Clay Guida and Takanori Gomi after that fight had Florian in position to get to another title shot in the division, and this time all he had to do was get past unbeaten Gray Maynard. Easier said than done, however, as wrestling again proved to be his kryptonite, and Maynard frustrated him through three rounds with takedowns and control at UFC 118 last August to hand him his fourth loss in the UFC.

Now at 11-4 in the organization, Florian makes a drop in weight class once again, and will become the first fighter to compete in four different weight divisions in the UFC when he meets featherweight Diego Nunes at UFC 131 next week. A win in that fight will likely put Florian into a title fight again, this time against Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo.

The show has not produced a ton of elite level fighters for the UFC, and of those that have made it to the finals and lost, Florian has no equal in the organization. He's consistently performed at a very high level throughout his UFC run; and while he may have fallen short in the most important fights he's had so far, he's easily the best and most accomplished runner-up in Ultimate Fighter history.