UFC Fight Night: Hendricks vs Thompson post-fight show

MMAFighitng.com’s Ariel Helwani and Chuck Mindenhall recap an entertaining night of fights, including the upset in the UFC Fight Night 82 main event.

MMAFighitng.com’s Ariel Helwani and Chuck Mindenhall recap an entertaining night of fights, including the upset in the UFC Fight Night 82 main event.

Johny Hendricks Won’t Blame Camp Change For First-Ever Knockout Loss

All the stars aligned for former UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks going into UFC Fight Night 82 in the main event bout with Stephen Thompson. However, things did not play out like many including Hendricks thought it would go. Going into this fight, Hendricks made a series of changes that included a change at training

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All the stars aligned for former UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks going into UFC Fight Night 82 in the main event bout with Stephen Thompson. However, things did not play out like many including Hendricks thought it would go.

Going into this fight, Hendricks made a series of changes that included a change at training camps as well as hiring a nutritionist in Louis Giordano. Those changes did not matter as Thompson beat him via TKO in the first round.

“Stephen Thompson was just a better man tonight,” Hendricks said at the post-fight press conference. “What can I say? He performed. I hesitated. I don’t hesitate usually. A lot of it goes into preparation. I switched camps and all these other things. But no excuses. He was just a better man.”

According to Hendricks, he will fight Thompson again.

“If somebody beats me, how do I beat them?” Hendricks said. “Because I’m pretty sure I’m gonna see him again. And if I see him again I want to make sure that it’s not the same outcome.

“I know what he caught me with. I know what he hit me with, and I know really everything that landed. But it’s still the fact that I lost.”

Hendricks cannot change what happened on Saturday night, but he can recover and come back stronger, which is exactly what he plans to do. According to Hendricks, he wants to return after the birth of his fourth child this spring.

“You get one day to prove who’s the better fighter, and he did it,” Hendricks said of Thompson. “It sucks when you lose, but, like I said, I’ll be back. I’m gonna get better. I’m gonna get stronger. I’m still figuring things out.”

Do you think Hendricks can rally back from this loss? Let us know.

The post Johny Hendricks Won’t Blame Camp Change For First-Ever Knockout Loss appeared first on LowKick MMA.

UFC Fight Night 82 results recap: Ovince St. Preux vs Rafael Cavalcante fight review and analysis

Last night (Sat., Feb. 6, 2016), Ovince St. Preux and Rafael Cavalcante went to war at UFC Fight Night 82 inside MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. In a dull fight, St. Preux out-worked his opponent. Find out how below! Ultimate Fi…

Last night (Sat., Feb. 6, 2016), Ovince St. Preux and Rafael Cavalcante went to war at UFC Fight Night 82 inside MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. In a dull fight, St. Preux out-worked his opponent. Find out how below!

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Light Heavyweight scrappers Ovince St. Preux and Rafael Cavalcante threw down last night (Feb. 6, 2016) at UFC Fight Night 82 inside MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

St. Preux has faced some ups-and-downs inside the Octagon, but overall he’s established himself as a top-flight 205 lbs. fighter. Last night, he was looking to maintain that position by sending the dangerous Brazilian packing.

Despite coming over from Strikeforce with plenty of momentum, Cavalcante has found little recent success. In all likelihood, “Feijao’s” back was against the wall here, as a bad performance could be his last inside the UFC.

After a tentative start from both men, St. Preux seemed to injure his foot landing a low kick. It had an immediate effect on him, as his movement was less than fluid, and he tried to switch his stance to get more comfortable.

Cavalcante attacked the injured leg with some low kicks, but overall he didn’t look to capitalize much. Despite limping around the cage, “OSP” continued to control the center of the Octagon and walk his opponent down. With less than a minute remaining, St. Preux rocked his opponent with a big left hand and followed him to the mat, landing some nice strikes until the end of the round.

It wasn’t an ideal start, but nonetheless St. Preux clearly won the first round.

St. Preux seemed to recover well between rounds, and he returned to stalking his opponent with some long punches and kicks. While he wasn’t throwing a ton of strikes, it was still more than enough, as “Feijao” was barely throwing any punches at all.

With about two minutes remaining, Cavalcante slipped and allowed his opponent to take top position. From there, St. Preux landed some hard ground strikes and controlled his opponent until the end of the round.

Frankly, “Fejiao” simply didn’t do a whole lot of actual fighting in the first two rounds.

Despite his lacking aggression in the first two rounds, the Brazilian did start the final found with a high kick and big combination. However, following that singular moment, “Fejiao” retreated back into his shell, allowed St. Preux to land, and then gave up an easy takedown.

It was pretty dreadful.

From the top, Cavalcante didn’t work for submissions, sweeps, or stand ups, nor did his opponent do much with his top position. St. Preux opened up with big shots at the end of the round and nearly finished, but that brought up the obvious question.

Cavalcante had already given up. Why didn’t St. Preux try to finish him with more than 10 seconds left?

Regardless, this was a success showing by “OSP,” who overcame some adversity in the form of an injured foot. Overall, it was a pretty standard performance, as St. Preux presented his usual mix of awkward-but-heavy punches, nasty kicks, and power takedowns.

Still, against an opponent who was barely fighting back, St. Preux definitely could’ve done more. There was no reason not to push for the finish, as the Brazilian really wasn’t doing anything.

Now that he’s back in the win column, perhaps a scrap with Jimi Manuwa is in his future.

The less said about Cavalcante’s performance, the better. He simply didn’t fight for vast portions of the fight. He had two real moments of aggression, and even those were brief.

In a 15 minute fight, that’s inexcusable.

Considering this awful showing and his recent record, Cavalcante is likely done in the UFC. At this point, it seems like he doesn’t care.

Last night, Ovince St. Preux cruised past an uninspired Rafael Cavalcante. Where does “OSP” head from here?

For complete UFC Fight Night 82: “Hendricks vs Thompson” results and play-by-play, click HERE!

UFC 196 video: The newest ‘dos Anjos vs. McGregor’ promo will give you chills

Check out the latest promo video for UFC 196: Dos Anjos vs. McGregor, which will definitely have you excited for next month’s mega pay-per-view. The UFC has done (at least to me) an excellent job with its promotional videos for its major pay…

Check out the latest promo video for UFC 196: Dos Anjos vs. McGregor, which will definitely have you excited for next month’s mega pay-per-view.

The UFC has done (at least to me) an excellent job with its promotional videos for its major pay-per-views over the past year or so. UFC 182, 189, 193, and 194 all produced great trailers to build anticipation for the big fights headlined by their top draws, and you can add 196 to the list.

This newest promo for Rafael dos Anjos vs. Conor McGregor and Holly Holm vs. Miesha Tate was unveiled during last night’s UFC Fight Night: Hendricks vs. Thompson broadcast. It’s 30 seconds well spent, and you can watch it at the top of the page. Mike Goldberg isn’t yelling “How good was that?”, Joe Rogan isn’t shouting the letter O repeatedly, but you will hear McGregor say that RDA is “a bum version of Aldo.”

UFC 196 is on March 5th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. That’s right, we’re just four weeks away from fight night, so cross your fingers that this special night isn’t ruined.

Max Holloway warns B.J. Penn: There’s another ‘Hawaii kid’ gunning for belt

Max Holloway respects B.J. Penn but warns him that their paths may cross if the former two-division champion wants the UFC featherweight belt. UFC legend B.J. Penn announced that he would be coming out of retirement last month to capture the…

Max Holloway respects B.J. Penn but warns him that their paths may cross if the former two-division champion wants the UFC featherweight belt.

UFC legend B.J. Penn announced that he would be coming out of retirement last month to capture the featherweight title. Penn, a UFC Hall of Famer and a two-division world champion — lightweight and welterweight — is one of Hawaii’s most successful MMA fighters, but there’s a new Hawaiian talent on the radar: Max Holloway.

The 24-year-old is riding an 8 fight win streak and is knocking on the door of title contention. Since losing to Conor McGregor in 2013, “Blessed” has sharpened and honed his craft and is now ranked as the #4 featherweight in the world.

Holloway has a tremendous amount of respect for B.J. Penn but warned him that there can only be one Hawaiian champion at 145 lbs.

“No one wanted to see him go out the way he did, so I’m glad he’s back trying to get some redemption, but him saying he’s coming to 145, I’m kind of scratching my head,” Holloway told Mike Bohn of MMAjunkie. “He’s coming to 145, and he’s going to try to go for the belt? He knows there’s another Hawaii kid right there for the belt. I don’t know if he’s saying he might come for the belt and thinking he might want to try to fight me? I have no idea. He knows I’m in the weight class, and he knows people are talking about my title shot.”

Penn last fought at the Ultimate Fighter 19 finale where he was dominated by Frankie Edgar in the main event. The loss to Edgar marked his third straight and the 37-year-old announced his retirement shortly after the bout. Penn’s last win came six years ago when he knocked out old rival — now friends — Matt Hughes at UFC 123.

Holloway found the fight with Edgar hard to watch and thinks BJ would fare better in the lightweight division.

“I’m glad he wants to fight because I didn’t want to watch him go out the way he did in the last one,” Holloway said. “But I always thought he was best at 155. If he trains hard and he’s focused, he’s an animal at 155. That run he had with the belt was something special.”

Penn captured the 155 lbs. title after butchering Joe Stevenson in 2008 and went on to defend the belt three times before being dethroned by Edgar in Abu Dhabi. The former champion claims he’ll be fighting Dennis Siver at UFC 196 but the promotion has yet to confirm the bout.

Watch UFC Fight Night 82 post-fight press conference video highlights

Let’s roll back the video tape!
With UFC Fight Night 82 coming to a close late last night (Sun., Feb. 6, 2016), featuring a welterweight match between former 170-pound kingpin Johny Hendricks against Stephen Thompson in the FOX Sports 1 main…

Let’s roll back the video tape!

With UFC Fight Night 82 coming to a close late last night (Sun., Feb. 6, 2016), featuring a welterweight match between former 170-pound kingpin Johny Hendricks against Stephen Thompson in the FOX Sports 1 main event, company vice president of public relations, Dave Sholler, gathered the cast and crew inside MGM Grand Garden Arena to break down all the mixed martial arts (MMA) action.

To watch Johny Hendricks vs. Stephen Thompson full fight video highlights from UFC Fight Nght 82 last night click here.

Watch Thompson, Hendricks, Nelson among other stars field questions from the MMA media after the event.

Of course, Sholler emceed the post-fight show, sharing his unique perspectives and reactions fresh off the promotion’s second free event of the new year.

Check out the full post-fight press conference replay in the video player above. And for complete, wall-to-wall UFC FIght Night 82: “Hendericks vs. Thompson” coverage, including play-by-play updates, click here.