Johny Hendricks Almost Didn't Fight at UFC 171

Newly crowned UFC Welterweight Champion, Johny Hendricks has come out to publicly state that he came into the UFC 171 main event with an injury to his elbow.  He stated that the injury almost took him out of the fight, but the chance at winning the title was to strong to keep him away from the fight with Robbie Lawler.  Hendricks states that the injury made it difficult to throw hooks and disrupted his ability to land takedowns.  Despite his injury, the UFC champ was able to come out of the fight with a hard-earned victory.

UFC 171: Are You Not Entertained? Hendricks and Lawler Deliver!

UFC fans and MMA fans, we had a show last night.  I must say that I was absolutely entertained by the events from last night.  We saw the undefeated stay undefeated.  We saw a new UFC Welterweight Champion crowned in one of the most entertaining main event fights in a while.  I won't keep you long, for full event card results click here.


Saturday night we witnessed a slugfest in the UFC 171 main event for the UFC Welterweight Division.  We saw a fight in which both men literally gave everything and stood their ground when the bell rang for the fight to begin.  It was a back and forth fight in which both men looked like winners as they put their heart and skills to the test against each other.  In the first round, both men came out strategic, but hungry as they traded shots.  Both men stood right in front of each other with Hendricks gaining the round by a very small margin due to his diversity of strikes.  Hendricks not only threw his excellent hands, but we saw him actually attacking Lawler with leg kicks that threw off Lawler's defense.  In the second round Hendricks continued with more of the same.  Lawler continued to trade with him and land shots of his own, but it wasn't enough to earn the round.

In the third round of the clash, we saw Robbie Lawler fire some of the best blows that I've ever seen landed on Johny Hendricks in the UFC. He was able to halt the offense of Hendricks when he rocked him on a few occasions. Hendricks was in trouble for the first time in his UFC career.  There was a moment in which the crowd that was partial to Hendricks during the first two round, began to cheer for Lawler. In the fourth round, Lawler continued to rain down left and right after left and right. Johny Hendricks also came out more composed in the fourth and was able to regain his rhythm  and composure and go blow for blow with Lawler.

When the fourth round was over you knew that the fight even going into the fifth.  Hendricks took the first two rounds and Lawler taking the third and fourth.  Both men came out swinging and standing toe-to-toe.  Both men exchanged blows and didn't back down.  Neither man was willing to let the other man what they had worked so hard for.  The fight was close and hard to call all the way untile Johny Hendricks landed a successful takedown that would inevitably secure the victory.  Had Hendricks not landed the takedown, it would've been a tough round to judge.

No matter who would have won, it couldn't have been a bad decision as both men put forth their best work.  It was an amazing fight that I recommend everyone watch if you missed it.  You will not be disappointed.  It was a battle between two of the best in the UFC's Welterweight Division.

UFC 171: Event Results

Main Card:

Johny Hendricks def. Robbie Lawler via unanimous decision
Tyron Woodley def. Carlos Condit via TKO injury Round 2
Myles Jury def. Diego Sanchez via unanimous decision
Hector Lombard def. Jake Shields via unanimous decision
Ovince St. Preux def. Nikita Krylov via Von Flue Choke Round 1

Preliminary Card:

Kelvin Gastelum def. Rick Story via split decision
Jessica Andrade def. Raquel Pennington via split decision
Dennis Bermudez def. Jim Hettes via TKO Round 3
Alex Garcia def. Sean Spencer via split decision
Frank Trevino def. Renee Forte by unanimous decision
Justin Scoggins def. Will Campuzano via unanimous decision
Sean Strickland def.  Bubba McDaniel via rear naked choke Round 1
Daniel Pineda def. Robert Whiteford via unanimous decision

UFC 171: Weigh-in Results

Main Card:

Johny Hendricks (170) vs. Robbie Lawler (170)
Carlos Condit (170.5) vs. Tyron Woodley (170)
Diego Sanchez (155) vs. Myles Jury (156)
Jake Shields (171) vs. Hector Lombard (170)
Ovince St. Preux (205) vs. Nikita Krylov (205)

Preliminary Card:

Kelvin Gastelum (171) vs. Rick Story (170.5)
Raquel Pennington (135.5) vs. Jessica Andrade (135)
Dennis Bermudez (146) vs. Jimy Hettes (145.5)
Sean Spencer (170) vs. Alex Garcia (170.5)
Renee Forte (157) vs. Frank Trevino (155)
Will Campuzano (125.5) vs. Justin Scoggins (125)
Robert McDaniel (184.5) vs. Sean Strickland (185)
Daniel Pineda (145) vs. Robert Whiteford (145)

UFC171: Countdown to UFC 171

Below are the two major portions from the UFC's Countdown to UFC 171.  The event features a battle of two great knockout artists Robbie Lawler and Johny Hendricks clashing for the vacant UFC Welterweight Championship.  Also in the co-main event, Carlos Condit faces rapidly rising star Tyron Woodley.  With a win, Carlos Condit has been guaranteed a title shot.

Johny Hendricks the New Middleweight Champion??

Despite the fact that Johny Hendricks hasn't fought Robbie Lawler for the vacant UFC Welterweight Championship, he already has his future all planned out.  He plans on winning the vacant title and defending it a few times and then moving up to Middleweight and earning that title and staying there to defend that belt.  Hendricks believes that the weight cut to Middleweight would be a lot better for his body than the cut to 170 lb as he normally walks around at 220 lbs.  He is also interested in a fight with the current 185 lb champ, Chris Weidman.

I'm on the fence about Hendricks moving up in weight.  Hendricks is a large welterweight in terms of natural weight and strength, but Hendricks isn't a large welterweight in terms of height and reach.  I feel that Hendricks would be able to throw more power at middleweight, but the weight cut hasn't been a negative in his performance.  He went five rounds with the champ at a high pace with grappling and striking.  He has figured out a way to make the cut and to make it work without losing explosiveness and cardio.  I would love a fight with Weidman at some point, but I don't want him to stay at middleweight as I feel he wouldn't stand a chance at some of the UFC's large Middleweights that are 6'4" while Hendricks stands at 5'9".  I think right now he should worry about getting through a hungry Robbie Lawler in Dallas at UFC 171.

GSP's Announcement and it's Effects

Today GSP held a press conference today to announce his future place in the UFC.  Georges "Rush" St-Pierre announced today that he will be stepping down as the UFC's Welterweight Champion and taking some much needed time off from the sport.  He is not retiring and does plan on coming back to the UFC.  With the title being vacated, the UFC has decided to let Johny Hendricks square off with Robbie Lawler to decide the next champion at UFC 171.  The UFC has moved the 205 lb title fight between Jones and Teixeira to UFC 172.  What are your thoughts on the announcements?

The Future of GSP to Be Announced this Friday

Georges "Rush" St-Pierre also known as GSP has announced that he will be holding a press conference in Montreal this Friday to fill in everyone on his plans in the UFC.

GSP has been a force to be reckoned since he began his MMA career.  His very first pro fight was against tough MMA veteran Ivan Menjivar back in 2002.  Two years later he made his UFC debut against Judo expert Karo Parysian at UFC 46 in 2004.  He won that fight and then followed up with a TKO victory over Jay Hieron at UFC 48.

After successfully rolling past his first two opponents in the UFC, GSP was granted a title fight at UFC 50 with the reigning bad man at 170 lbs at the time, Matt Hughes.  When we watched that fight we learned that the young man that was challenging for the title was going to be the future of the UFC's welterweight division, but it was not to happen on that night.  St-Pierre was submitted at the 4:59 mark of the first round with an armbar that he tapped to immediately.

After losing to Hughes at UFC 50 he made his return at UFC 52 against Jason "Mayhem" Miller and won a pretty clear cut decision over Miller.  That fight was followed by another challenge that GSP concurred, a match with Frank "Twinkle Toes" Trigg who was at that time the most recent opponent that Hughes had defended his title against. GSP was able to submit Trigg with the same choke that Hughes had finished him with.  With another successful victory in the books, Sean Sherk was the next man that the UFC put in front of the red-hot rising star from Canada.  GSP was able to finish Sherk in the second round via TKO due to strikes.  Next up for St-Pierre was a hungry Penn who was looking to make a successful return to the UFC since he won the UFC Welterweight title two years earlier.  St-Pierre went on to win a successful split decision victory over Penn.

With a win over BJ Penn GSP was able to gain a second title shot against Matt Hughes in November 2006 at UFC 65.  St-Pierre would go on to take the title from Matt Hughes on that very night as he stunned Hughes in the second round to gain a TKO victory over the the UFC's most dominant Welterweight Champion.

This fight would begin GSP's first UFC title reign.  For St-Pierre the title reign would be he short-lived as he has a hungry challenger waiting to snatch the title up from underneath him.  His first title defense would be against the TUF 4 winner Matt Serra.  Serra caught "Rush" in the first round and went on to earn a TKO victory in the first round.

After that defeat, St-Pierre would have to fight his way back to a title shot with Serra.  He then met TUF 1 alumni, Josh Koscheck. He defeated Koscheck via unanimous decision.  His next test would be his third meeting with Former UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Hughes.  He defeated Hughes with the same move that Hughes beat him with in their first bout.

After defeating Hughes by submission in the second round, it was time for GSP to face off with Serra again.  In that fight St-Pierre showed up with a a new found fire in his eyes that led him to TKO Serra with a vicious series of knees to the body that caused the referee to end the fight and GSP to gain his title back.  St-Pierre was scheduled to face Jon Fitch as his first challenger since getting the title back.  St. Pierre went on to earn a decision victory over Fitch earning his first successful title defense.  While St-Pierre was making his mark in the UFC's Welterweight division, former UFC Welterweight Champion, BJ had won the UFC Lightweight Championship.  The UFC put on it's first super fight as St-Pierre was placed against Penn in a fight for the UFC Welterweight title.  GSP went on to win a TKO victory when Penn couldn't answer the bell at the beginning of the fifth round at UFC 94.

After his victory over Penn, the challengers continued to pile up and GSP began to knock them down. Thiago Alves at UFC 100, Dan Hardy at UFC 111, Josh Koscheck at UFC 124, Jake Shields at UFC 129, Carlos Condit and UFC 154 and Nate Diaz at UFC 158.  All of those men suffered the same fate at the hands of Georges "Rush" St-Pierre.  It wasn't until UFC 167 that we would see GSP struggle with an opponent in a fight.  To put it as simple as possible, GSP got beat up.  He even admitted it himself.He went on to win a split decision that many experts have disputed and thought belonged to his challenger, Johnny Hendricks.

After the fight, a flustered St-Pierre stated that he needed to take some time off from the sport to deal with some personal issues.  Since then we have had no confirmation of whether or not he was going to retire or give Hendricks a rematch for the title.  This Friday we will find out if we have seen the las of GSP in the Octagon.

Should UFC Champ Georges St-Pierre retire this Friday?--Rough Spar MMA

Yes - He should go out on top

Yes - He has nothing left in him

No - He still owes Hendricks a rematch

No - He still has many years ahead of him

Other

Please Specify:

Poll Maker

UFC 167 Recap w/ Prediction Results

Last night was  a very entertaining night of fights that ended with a very controversial split decision win for the UFC Welterweight title.

We will begin with the headlining fight of the prelims. Donald Cerrone who was on a two-fight losing streak coming into his fight with Evan Dunham and he desperately needed a win last night and he got it.  He was able to out-strike and out-grapple Dunham and eventually finish him on the ground with a beautiful triangle choke in the second round.  The question now becomes what should Donald Cerrone do now after his win?  Should he continue to fight at 155 or should he make the move to 145 as he had stated he would do win, lose or draw?

The first fight on the main card was a fast-paced fight between Tim Elliot and Ali Bagautinov. It was an interesting fight in which both men participated in excellent striking exchanges which involved Tim Elliot landing more volumes of strikes and Bagautinov landing the more devastating strikes.  It was a match in which I had Bagautinov winning rounds 1 ad 3, but felt the fight could go either way depending on what the judges saw was more important, volume or clean, power strikes. In that fight the judges chose accurate, clean, power strikes.  The question for this match up would be how many wins would Bagautinov be away from a title fight and who will he face next?

The next fight was the first of three fights at 170 lbs on the main card. Tyron Woodley faced Josh Koscheck in a match that ended in the first round by way of TKO.  Koscheck hurt Woodley early in the round with a straight right hand that made Woodley begin to step backwards, but Woodley survived that and some impressive grappling from Koscheck in order to rock Koscheck with a right hand and send him flat on his back.  The question I have is how would Woodley perform is he is given a top ten opponent for his next fight?

After that match was GSP's training partner, Rory MacDonald taking on Robbie Lawler in the second welterweight fight of the main card.  After promising to be more exciting than his last fight, we saw MacDonald do exactly the same thing he did in his last fight, which was boring us to death.  Robbie Lawler won a split decision after he out-struck MacDonald and kept pressure on him the entire fight.  There were moments when MacDonald did get the better of Lawler, but those moments were few and very short.  What will happen to Rory MacDonald after putting out two terrible performances?  Also will this win put Lawler in the top 5 in the UFC's Welterweight Division? Also who will Robbie Lawler face next?

The co-main event of the evening included a bout between friends and coworkers, Rashad Evans and Chael Sonnen.  It was a match up in which Rashad quickly put away Chael Sonnen on the ground due to strikes.  Who will the UFC put against Evans who has recovered from his two-fight winning streak?  Does Evans still have the ability to become the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship again?

In the main event we saw a very close match in which we could have seen either man get their hand raised at the end of the fight, but Georges St-Pierre retained his title by split decision.  The fight was too close to call, but (contrary to popular belief) I did score the fight for the champ giving him rounds 1,3 and 5.  There is also controversy as to whether or not Johny Hendricks tapped out to a submission in the first round of the fight.  Video below:

I think that it is obvious to see that Hendricks didn't tap, but many people are entertaining this notion of GSP having a submission ignored.  After the fight St-Pierre hinted at possibly needing some time away to deal with some things in his personal life.  Dana White had a conversation with the champ and says that GSP will overcome his personal issues and will not be retiring.  He also stated that GSP owes Hendricks a rematch they look forward to putting that together.

Below is a prediction on how I felt that the event would play out and the actual results that occured:

Also be sure to vote for who you believed was the true winner of the main event last night at: UFC 167 Main Event Poll

UFC 167 Results

Main Card:

Georges St-Pierre def. Johny Hendricks via split decision
Rashad Evans def. Chael Sonnen via first-round TKO
Robbie Lawler def. Rory MacDonald via split decision
Tyron Woodley def. Josh Koscheck via first-round KO
Ali Bagautinov def. Tim Elliott via unanimous decision

Preliminary Card:

Donald Cerrone def. Evan Dunham via submission (triangle choke)
Thales Leites def. Ed Herman via unanimous decision
Rick Story def. Brian Ebersole via unanimous decision
Erik Perez def. Edwin Figueroa via unanimous decision
Jason High def. Anthony Lapsley via unanimous decision
Sergio Pettis def. Will Campuzano via unanimous decision
Gian Villante def. Cody Donovan via second-round TKO

UFC 167 Weigh in Results

Main Card:

Georges St-Pierre (170) vs. Johny Hendricks (170)
Rashad Evans (205) vs. Chael Sonnen (206)
Robbie Lawler (170) vs. Rory MacDonald (171)
Josh Koscheck (170) vs. Tyron Woodley (171)
Ali Bagautinov (126) vs. Tim Elliott (125)

Preliminary Card:

Evan Dunham (156) vs. Donald Cerrone (155)
Ed Herman (186) vs. Thales Leites (186)
Brian Ebersole (171) vs. Rick Story (170)
Edwin Figueroa (135) vs. Erik Perez (135)
Jason High (170) vs. Anthony Lapsley (170)
Sergio Pettis (135) vs. Will Campuzano (135)
Cody Donovan (205) vs. Gian Villante (205)