'Thanks MMA Bread n Butter!' Kenny Florian helps FOX reader earn KO win

Last week, I headed south to Central Illinois to corner two Team Dino Costeas teammates, Joshua Braxton Johnson and Seijo Imazaki in MMA bouts at the USA vs. The World event in Decatur, IL. If you don't know exactly where Decatur is, don't feel bad -- neither did we.

But we headed down there to fight nontheless, and were rewarded with a truly generous and classy crowd, and two wins. Unfortunately for my teammates like Joshua, they were stuck with me as a cornerman

The good news was that Joshua made up for it, in part, by studying some of FOX Sports' MMA Bread n Butter technique videos. The result -- a first round knockout win!

Because Josh likes the blast double-leg takedown, he and I drilled some level-change fakes into strikes that Kenny Florian showed me during our Chad Mendes video, the day before and of the fight.

What I didn't know until after Joshua won his lightweight bout in under a minute via head kick KO, was that he'd been watching the MMA Bread n Butter videos for months, and two in particular influenced his strategy a great deal heading into the bout. Joshua wrote in to thank Florian and the whole Bread n Butter team for the videos, and to share tape of his win from Friday.

We're thrilled that the videos are not just getting viewed, but used. That's exactly the type of hope Evan "The Beard," Kenny and I all had when we kicked off the series, earlier this year.

Check out Joshua's story below, and then watch him kick some butt, Bread n Butter style!

"Ive really enjoyed the Bread n Butter videos that Kenny Florian and Elias have been making. There are two videos in particular that I really enjoyed and was able to implement into my last fight, this past Friday.

I must have watched the Chad Mendes level change video and the Anthony Pettis kicking video two dozen times each. As a wrestler, I loved the way Kenny explained how Chad uses the threat of his level changes and takedowns to set up his strikes. Since watching the video, I've played a lot with level-change set up to the uppercut and with a lot of other strikes off it as well.

The Pettis kicking video was top notch as well. I'd long thought about fighting ambitextrously and was inspired to do so more by the video break down. Fighting opposite stance to your opponent to set up counter kicks and avoid the strong Muay Thai lead leg kick sounded like something I wanted to be able to do, when Kenny demonstrated it on Elias.

I studied the videos and then my POW gym and TDC teammates patiently allowed me time to drill the techniques to get them down. In my fight last Friday, I was lucky enough to combine the two Bread n Butter technique videos for the knockout of my life!

My opponent was a conventional Muay Thai stanced fighter, so I took a Southpaw stance against him like Kenny explained Pettis often does, and waited to gauge distance and his timing. After enough dancing I finally faked to drop for the shot -- just a little -- and my opponent Jared Davis reacted by leaning his head in slightly and his hips out, to defend a possible takedown. 

He also threw a jab out but I had already snapped a rear high roundhouse kick just in time to catch him under the chin. Truly lucky, but with the help of the Bread n Butter video techniques that I'd been drilling!

I actually didn't realize I'd connected with the high kick at first. I thought my opponent had blocked the kick and shot in on me, as he fell to the floor. Luckily, that was all she wrote for us that evening. Thankfully my opponent ended up alright and healthy, and that's all we could hope for.

So, huge thanks to FOX Sports, Mr. Florian and Elias for the videos, and I hope more are in store in the future."

Congratulations to Joshua! Glad MMA Bread n Butter was a part of your win.

Stay tuned for more technique videos from us later this year!

And for head kicks sake, check out Thiago Santos' head-kick knockout win over Steve Bosse at UFC Fight Night Hollywood.