Kenny Florian Describes Losing Feeling In His Leg For A Year From José Aldo’s Notorious Leg Kicks

Getty Image / Composite


José Aldo’s thunderous leg kicks have been well-documented since his 2010 win over Urijah Faber, connecting on 31 leg kicks, putting Faber in crutches, and turning his leg into a Christmas ham Aunt Paulette forgot to take out of the oven.

After the match, Faber compared Aldo’s leg kicks to “getting hit with a bat,” and former UFC star-turned-PFL commentator Kenny Florian can support that claim.

We talked to Florian on our Endless Hustle about who delivered the most punishing blows in his 20 fight, four weight class UFC career. While Florian claimed B.J. Penn was the fighter who hit him the hardest, he did not hesitate in the Leg Kick Department.

“As far as leg kicks, easy answer, José Aldo kicked me the hardest…Imagine the worst charley horse your big brother has ever given you, and then multiply that by 10, and then have them do that another 10 times in the exact same spot and I would say that’s what it’s like getting kicked in the leg.”

When I got kicked in the leg against José Aldo, he kicked the inside of my leg which candidly is a little better, it doesn’t affect the muscle as bad. But I lost feeling in the inside of my leg, in my nerves, for maybe almost a year. I remember it was numb there for at least 8 months. I actually developed a little tic, I would swipe my hand on the inside of my leg to see if I could feel it. And all the nerves were just, like, dead.”

Florian’s pulling from the 2011 UFC Featherweight Championship, the final fight of his career, in which he succumbed to José Aldo in five rounds via unanimous decision.

Check out our entire interview with Florian and UFC legend Randy Couture below.

Matt Keohan Avatar
Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.