It might be an excruciating summer for Donald Cerrone, but the UFC is asking him to sit tight and wait.
On Wednesday’s edition of UFC Tonight it was reported that Cerrone has been informed by the UFC that he is next in line to fight Rafael d…
It might be an excruciating summer for Donald Cerrone, but the UFC is asking him to sit tight and wait.
On Wednesday’s edition of UFC Tonight it was reported that Cerrone has been informed by the UFC that he is next in line to fight Rafael dos Anjos for the lightweight title, once dos Anjos. The new 155-pound champ is recovering for surgery to repair a torn MCL, and is expected to be ready to fight again in December.
Cerrone is coming off a TKO victory over John Makdessi at UFC 187 in May. Makdessi was a replacement for Khabib Nurmagomedov, who was originally booked to meet “Cowboy” in a No. 1 contender’s bout. With Nurmagomedov still on the shelf, Cerrone was the leading candidate to get a shot at dos Anjos when he came back.
However, even though Cerrone had indicated initially that he would wait out the timetable for dos Anjos’ return, in the last week he seemed to have changed his mind.
“So I woke up this morning thinking I’m not really the sit around until December kinda guy??” he tweeted out last week.
According to the report, Cerrone in fact did ask the UFC for another fight while dos Anjos’ recovers, but the UFC told him no, that he was getting the title should and he will have to wait it out.
Cerrone is currently on an eight-fight win streak, dating back to 2013. His last loss came in August of that year against none other than Rafael dos Anjos, who scored a unanimous decision victory over him at UFC Fight Night 27 in Indianapolis.
Not really. Cage rust doesn’t apply to a cardio-bull like Velasquez.
And especially not when the opponent is Werdum, whom Mendez thinks is a far lesser opponent than the guy Velasquez last beat, Junior dos Santos. American Kickboxing Academy’s owner and head MMA coach Mendez has gone on record about how unconcerned he is with the interim heavyweight’s chances against Velasquez, even going so far as to tell MMA Fighting in a recent interview that Werdum had no chance.
On Monday, just five days before the fight, Mendez appeared on The MMA Hour and explained why he was so confident.
“By saying a zero chance, it’s not an actual statement,” he told Ariel Helwani. “I’m saying he has little chance. The bottom line is from what I viewed of the Mark Hunt fight [at UFC 180], Mark Hunt was beating him in the stand-up the first round, thrashing him somewhat on the ground…is Mark Hunt some great jiu-jitsu guy? No. So why was Mark Hunt able to do what he was doing to him? Because Mark Hunt’s a tough fighter. And Cain’s above that as far as the grappling area.
“As far as the arsenal that Cain has, it’s by far higher than just about anybody in the division. On top of the fact that nobody can deal with the pressure that Cain puts on everybody.”
Mendez was quick to point out that Velasquez has already defeated the only heavyweight on the roster that gave him real concerns. That was former heavyweight champion dos Santos, whom has fought Velasquez three times.
“You know what, outside of JDS — and JDS has got a while before the fans will believe in that — that to me is still the second toughest son of a gun out there. I think JDS would be a great champion in his own right if Cain Velasquez wasn’t around.”
Asked pointedly if Werdum was a step below dos Santos as far as challenges went for Velasquez, Mendez doubled-down.
“For me, yes — one hundred percent yes,” he said. “Every time we fought JDS man, my mind was going, ‘oh crap…okay, I can’t screw up, I’ve got to be on point and I’ve got to make sure we don’t screw up because one bad move with that guy, you’re out.’ In all three fights I was that way. The first one was the most nerve-racking because he couldn’t wrestle. But even regardless if he couldn’t wrestler, JDS, he still landed that shot. We can’t forget that.
“I’ll never forget how great of a fighter JDS is, and I’m sorry — Fabricio is good, I don’t take that away from him, he’s really good — but he’s not JDS. And there’s no one out there that’s at the level of JDS. There isn’t.”
Werdum has been sneaky good for a long time, scoring a huge upset victory over Fedor Emelianenko back in Strikeforce, and dominating such UFC names as Roy Nelson, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Travis Browne. His last loss in the UFC came back at UFC 90 against dos Santos, who was making his promotional debut. In his last fight, which happened in Mexico City – the same spot that he’ll face Velasquez on Saturday – Werdum turned the tables on Hunt by scoring a second-round TKO that began with a perfectly timed flying knee.
The 37-year-old Werdum (19-5-1) is also a second-degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which makes the ground a scary place to be with him as well.
Still, Mendez doesn’t see Werdum being able to match Velasquez’s intensity for a single round, much less five. When asked for his prediction, Mendez said it would be a beat down.
“Well, I can’t predict how he’s going to how he’s gone to win, all I can tell you is this: He’s going to win every round,” he said. “He’s either going to stop him or give him the beating of his life. He’s never going to make…if [Werdum] makes five rounds, he’s going to get beat up worse than JDS. I tell you that, I say that, and it will happen.”
Not really. Cage rust doesn’t apply to a cardio-bull like Velasquez.
And especially not when the opponent is Werdum, whom Mendez thinks is a far lesser opponent than the guy Velasquez last beat, Junior dos Santos. American Kickboxing Academy’s owner and head MMA coach Mendez has gone on record about how unconcerned he is with the interim heavyweight’s chances against Velasquez, even going so far as to tell MMA Fighting in a recent interview that Werdum had no chance.
On Monday, just five days before the fight, Mendez appeared on The MMA Hour and explained why he was so confident.
“By saying a zero chance, it’s not an actual statement,” he told Ariel Helwani. “I’m saying he has little chance. The bottom line is from what I viewed of the Mark Hunt fight [at UFC 180], Mark Hunt was beating him in the stand-up the first round, thrashing him somewhat on the ground…is Mark Hunt some great jiu-jitsu guy? No. So why was Mark Hunt able to do what he was doing to him? Because Mark Hunt’s a tough fighter. And Cain’s above that as far as the grappling area.
“As far as the arsenal that Cain has, it’s by far higher than just about anybody in the division. On top of the fact that nobody can deal with the pressure that Cain puts on everybody.”
Mendez was quick to point out that Velasquez has already defeated the only heavyweight on the roster that gave him real concerns. That was former heavyweight champion dos Santos, whom has fought Velasquez three times.
“You know what, outside of JDS — and JDS has got a while before the fans will believe in that — that to me is still the second toughest son of a gun out there. I think JDS would be a great champion in his own right if Cain Velasquez wasn’t around.”
Asked pointedly if Werdum was a step below dos Santos as far as challenges went for Velasquez, Mendez doubled-down.
“For me, yes — one hundred percent yes,” he said. “Every time we fought JDS man, my mind was going, ‘oh crap…okay, I can’t screw up, I’ve got to be on point and I’ve got to make sure we don’t screw up because one bad move with that guy, you’re out.’ In all three fights I was that way. The first one was the most nerve-racking because he couldn’t wrestle. But even regardless if he couldn’t wrestler, JDS, he still landed that shot. We can’t forget that.
“I’ll never forget how great of a fighter JDS is, and I’m sorry — Fabricio is good, I don’t take that away from him, he’s really good — but he’s not JDS. And there’s no one out there that’s at the level of JDS. There isn’t.”
Werdum has been sneaky good for a long time, scoring a huge upset victory over Fedor Emelianenko back in Strikeforce, and dominating such UFC names as Roy Nelson, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Travis Browne. His last loss in the UFC came back at UFC 90 against dos Santos, who was making his promotional debut. In his last fight, which happened in Mexico City – the same spot that he’ll face Velasquez on Saturday – Werdum turned the tables on Hunt by scoring a second-round TKO that began with a perfectly timed flying knee.
The 37-year-old Werdum (19-5-1) is also a second-degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which makes the ground a scary place to be with him as well.
Still, Mendez doesn’t see Werdum being able to match Velasquez’s intensity for a single round, much less five. When asked for his prediction, Mendez said it would be a beat down.
“Well, I can’t predict how he’s going to how he’s gone to win, all I can tell you is this: He’s going to win every round,” he said. “He’s either going to stop him or give him the beating of his life. He’s never going to make…if [Werdum] makes five rounds, he’s going to get beat up worse than JDS. I tell you that, I say that, and it will happen.”
Every now and again you get a card like the one in New Orleans on Saturday night, a card where everybody’s either going out on their shields or blowing the smoke off their fists. The kind of card where Burt Watson tearfully whispers “that’s what I’m talking about, baby” into a warm glass of Grand Marnier as he catches up on his DVR. The kind of card where Thiago Tavares, years from now, will gaily trace the scar over his eye to the very birthplace of jazz.
It was a fitting topper that 44-year-old Dan Henderson went out there and turned the figure of Tim Boetsch into a mushroom cloud. That old “H-bomb” can still devastate entire civilizations. Maybe Jay Glazer was right to marvel at Hendo’s staying power earlier in the broadcast. At this point, there’s no explaining that kind of “longectivity,” to use his word. There just isn’t.
And that Henderson needed just 28 seconds to finish Boetsch was also apt; everybody was in a damn hurry out there at the Smoothie King Center. Dustin Poirier, a Louisiana native, knocked Yancy Medeiros out something like three times in half a round. Francisco Rivera needed just 21 seconds to put away Alex Caceres, and spent another 21 seconds pleading for a bonus (very unbecoming). Anthony Birchak, who waited nearly a year to punch Joe Soto, got it done in 1:37. And did you see what Shawn Jordan did to “The Black Beast,” Derrick Lewis? It defied logic. Fullbacks shouldn’t be able to kick that high.
In an age where leftover heavyweights from other brutal eras are suddenly resurfacing as contenders, Big Ben is the latest to lumber forward. It wasn’t that he choked Matt Mitrione into an emphatic two-hand tap (which in itself was medieval), it was the evil laugh afterwards. Rothwell knows his way around a microphone, just like he knows how to cut a wholesome gif. When Jon Anik got up close for the post-fight interview, Rothwell dug into his farm-bred villainy, saying, “You Have Seen Nothing, Yet.” Not the double negative “you ain’t seen nothing yet” but “You Have Seen Nothing, Yet.” Then he laughed evilly and threw his arm up in a showcase of villainous evil. This of course blew Jacob Volkmann’s old “glassectomy” spiel out of the water.
And this feels like a common theme in 2015, this dusting off heavyweight relics from the past and shining them up as contenders. Rothwell wasn’t supposed to beat Alistair Overeem back in September of last year out at Foxwoods. In fact, he was supposed to act as a tonic to whatever was ailing Overeem. To get him off the schneid, if you will. Instead Big Ben won, fast and dirty by TKO, and then did The Dance. It was almost too much to believe.
Yet then he goes out there and takes it to Matt Mitrione, who will regret shooting in for a takedown for the next many years. Suddenly Rothwell is not only relevant again in the heavyweight division, he’s talking about the title. Not all at once, of course, he is from Kenosha. He thinks that Stipe Miocic should get the winner of next Saturday night’s UFC 188 main event between primary champ Cain Velasquez and interim champ Fabricio Werdum.
But he wants next next, like it’s rec center basketball we’re dealing in. He wants to face Andrei Arlovski, the UFC’s other reclamation project, in the meantime. You know, for the right to face the winner of Miocic-Werdum/Velasquez. He is prospecting for a glinting future that, in the land of heavies, is really just a chaotic crapshoot where the best-laid plans turn into existential rabbit holes.
Bless his heart. Evil genius can be so innocent.
Yet if Rothwell is a step closer to a heavyweight title shot, that’s par for the course. When it comes to heavyweights, we don’t know jack. We had left Rothwell for dead back when he’d lost two of three between 2011-2013. His career went even more off track after he went berserker on Brandon Vera in the third round of a fight he later tested for elevated testosterone for. Rothwell was headed south.
How far south? So far south that when he came back up he had acquired an evil laugh. On a great night of fights in New Orleans, “Big” Ben Rothwell put himself back into the conversation. Ben freaking Rothwell. Maybe it’s not that we “Have Seen Nothing, Yet” so much as “do we actually believe what we’re seeing?”
Every now and again you get a card like the one in New Orleans on Saturday night, a card where everybody’s either going out on their shields or blowing the smoke off their fists. The kind of card where Burt Watson tearfully whispers “that’s what I’m talking about, baby” into a warm glass of Grand Marnier as he catches up on his DVR. The kind of card where Thiago Tavares, years from now, will gaily trace the scar over his eye to the very birthplace of jazz.
It was a fitting topper that 44-year-old Dan Henderson went out there and turned the figure of Tim Boetsch into a mushroom cloud. That old “H-bomb” can still devastate entire civilizations. Maybe Jay Glazer was right to marvel at Hendo’s staying power earlier in the broadcast. At this point, there’s no explaining that kind of “longectivity,” to use his word. There just isn’t.
And that Henderson needed just 28 seconds to finish Boetsch was also apt; everybody was in a damn hurry out there at the Smoothie King Center. Dustin Poirier, a Louisiana native, knocked Yancy Medeiros out something like three times in half a round. Francisco Rivera needed just 21 seconds to put away Alex Caceres, and spent another 21 seconds pleading for a bonus (very unbecoming). Anthony Birchak, who waited nearly a year to punch Joe Soto, got it done in 1:37. And did you see what Shawn Jordan did to “The Black Beast,” Derrick Lewis? It defied logic. Fullbacks shouldn’t be able to kick that high.
In an age where leftover heavyweights from other brutal eras are suddenly resurfacing as contenders, Big Ben is the latest to lumber forward. It wasn’t that he choked Matt Mitrione into an emphatic two-hand tap (which in itself was medieval), it was the evil laugh afterwards. Rothwell knows his way around a microphone, just like he knows how to cut a wholesome gif. When Jon Anik got up close for the post-fight interview, Rothwell dug into his farm-bred villainy, saying, “You Have Seen Nothing, Yet.” Not the double negative “you ain’t seen nothing yet” but “You Have Seen Nothing, Yet.” Then he laughed evilly and threw his arm up in a showcase of villainous evil. This of course blew Jacob Volkmann’s old “glassectomy” spiel out of the water.
And this feels like a common theme in 2015, this dusting off heavyweight relics from the past and shining them up as contenders. Rothwell wasn’t supposed to beat Alistair Overeem back in September of last year out at Foxwoods. In fact, he was supposed to act as a tonic to whatever was ailing Overeem. To get him off the schneid, if you will. Instead Big Ben won, fast and dirty by TKO, and then did The Dance. It was almost too much to believe.
Yet then he goes out there and takes it to Matt Mitrione, who will regret shooting in for a takedown for the next many years. Suddenly Rothwell is not only relevant again in the heavyweight division, he’s talking about the title. Not all at once, of course, he is from Kenosha. He thinks that Stipe Miocic should get the winner of next Saturday night’s UFC 188 main event between primary champ Cain Velasquez and interim champ Fabricio Werdum.
But he wants next next, like it’s rec center basketball we’re dealing in. He wants to face Andrei Arlovski, the UFC’s other reclamation project, in the meantime. You know, for the right to face the winner of Miocic-Werdum/Velasquez. He is prospecting for a glinting future that, in the land of heavies, is really just a chaotic crapshoot where the best-laid plans turn into existential rabbit holes.
Bless his heart. Evil genius can be so innocent.
Yet if Rothwell is a step closer to a heavyweight title shot, that’s par for the course. When it comes to heavyweights, we don’t know jack. We had left Rothwell for dead back when he’d lost two of three between 2011-2013. His career went even more off track after he went berserker on Brandon Vera in the third round of a fight he later tested for elevated testosterone for. Rothwell was headed south.
How far south? So far south that when he came back up he had acquired an evil laugh. On a great night of fights in New Orleans, “Big” Ben Rothwell put himself back into the conversation. Ben freaking Rothwell. Maybe it’s not that we “Have Seen Nothing, Yet” so much as “do we actually believe what we’re seeing?”
On a card where just about every fight was entertaining, Brian Ortega’s TKO victory over 16-fight UFC veteran Thiago Tavares stood out the most.
Those two took home Fight of the Night honors at UFC Fight Night 68 in New Orleans after a memor…
On a card where just about every fight was entertaining, Brian Ortega’s TKO victory over 16-fight UFC veteran Thiago Tavares stood out the most.
Those two took home Fight of the Night honors at UFC Fight Night 68 in New Orleans after a memorable bout on the main card. Ortega, who was returning to action after almost a year on suspension for testing positive for a banned substance, overcame early trouble to down Tavares in the third round.
The 24-year old who goes by the nickname “T-City,” along with Tavares who was winning the first midway through, each took home $50,000.
Also taking home bonus money were Louisiana natives Shawn Jordan and Dustin Poirier, each of whom scored big victories on their native soil.
On the last prelim of the night Jordan scored one of the greatest knockouts in heavyweight history by landing a hook kick on Derrick Lewis. After a follow-up volley seconds later, Jordan — who played fullback for the national champion LSU team in the 2007 — got his arm raised in victory. He has now won three fights in a row.
In a catchweight fight, Poirier blitzed Yancy Medeiros early, dropping him with a pair of big shots within the opening minute. He then landed a body shot that signaled the end for the Hawaiian Medeiros, and the fight was stopped midway through the first round.
Poirier and Jordan were given Performance of the Night checks of $50,000 apiece.
In January, after bantamweight Cody Garbrandt made good in his UFC debut against Marcus Brimage at UFC 182, he dedicated his performance to a little boy in the audience who had battled leukemia for the last three-and-a-half years. That boy’s name was Maddux Maple. He was at the MGM Grand that night with his father, Mic, to watch his hero realize a dream.
It was a storybook set-up, though, in which the triumph very poignantly extended both ways. While living in the small-town of Uhrichsville, Ohio, there had been a promise between Garbrandt and Maddux Maple that went like this: If Maddux promised to beat cancer, Garbrandt promised he would make it to the UFC. Garbrandt had been a troubled youth who found his inspiration in Maddux. Maddux saw the local fighter Garbrandt as a hero.
They made the pact.
Both incredibly lived up to their ends of the bargain, which you can read about here. Maddux’s leukemia is in remission, and Garbrandt made it to the UFC. In that story, Maddux’s father said that his son’s ultimate dream was to one day walk Garbrandt out to the Octagon.
Well, that dream will be realized on July 11, when Garbrandt will take on Enrique Briones at UFC 189. Mic Maple told MMA Fighting that Maddux, who just turned nine in April, will accompany Garbrandt to the cage at the very same venue where the two “brothers” — the boy and the fighter, one indistinguishable from the other — upheld their promises to each other.
On Friday, Garbrandt told MMA Fighting how thrilled Maddux was when he heard the news.
“We were sitting on the couch when I told him, and his face got all beet red,” Garbrandt said. “He smiled so big, like the biggest smile I’ve ever seen on a kid, like seeing a kid get his ultimate gift. He just grabbed me and was just so thankful and so excited. He gave me a big ol’ hug.”
The person who ended up making it happen was UFC matchmaker, Sean Shelby, who caught wind of the story.
“Sean hit me up after the article came out and said I’m going to see if we can get Maddux to walkout for your next fight whenever that is, as that’s one of his dreams that he wanted to do,” Garbrandt said. “Sean took it and made it all come to fruition. So, obviously I got the fight. As soon as the fight was landed with Enrique, he said hey, don’t worry, I’m working on getting Maddux to walk you out. So he took the initiative to make it a priority to make it happen.”
Back in January, when the 23-year-old Garbrandt defeated Brimage and made the dedication, little did people know that Maddux was actually struggling. A video showed his reaction to the fight, but the whole week he was in Vegas was a tumultuous. Right at the heightened moment of so much coming together in his young life, the fear breaking over the mood was that he might be sick again.
“It was kept under wraps, but they thought his leukemia came back a week before they left [for the fight],” Garbrandt said. “He was sick the whole time, so we didn’t get to do much because he couldn’t walk. I had to push him around in a wheelchair, and he was a little embarrassed about being in it. But we made it fun. I said, I’ll push you, so we were popping wheelies and going off all over the MGM.”
Fortunately for Maddux, whom doctors are monitoring closely and checking every Thursday, it was a false alarm. With everything okay, he’s not about to miss the opportunity to walk Garbrandt to the Octagon.
“It was great of the UFC to do this, especially…man, I remember the days when Maddux couldn’t walk. It’s heart wrenching. To see how far he’s come, it’s just motivation for me. I know that I can accomplish anything in life after seeing him come from not being able to walk to now walking me to the cage. It’s amazing. It’s awesome.”
That’s not all. Next time Maddux sees Cody, things will be a little different. When Maddux gets to Las Vegas in July, he’ll be given the added benefit of meeting Garbrandt’s new girlfriend — UFC strawweight, Paige VanZant – whom he’s only heard about at this point. Garbrandt trains with VanZant at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, and has told each about the other.
“[Paige] hasn’t met him yet but she’s dying to,” Garbrandt said. “She just thinks it’s great that we share that special bond. There’s so much to it. I gained a little brother from it, and she thinks it’s great. She’s very excited to meet him.
“Maddux’s dad showed him some pictures of Paige and stuff. And Maddux said, ‘is that Cody’s new girlfriend?’ And he said, ‘yeah, she’s a fighter, too.’ And he said, ‘wow, she’s hot!’ So I told Paige about it, and she thought it was the cutest thing. She’s excited to meet him, and she’ll get to do that in Vegas.”
In January, after bantamweight Cody Garbrandt made good in his UFC debut against Marcus Brimage at UFC 182, he dedicated his performance to a little boy in the audience who had battled leukemia for the last three-and-a-half years. That boy’s name was Maddux Maple. He was at the MGM Grand that night with his father, Mic, to watch his hero realize a dream.
It was a storybook set-up, though, in which the triumph very poignantly extended both ways. While living in the small-town of Uhrichsville, Ohio, there had been a promise between Garbrandt and Maddux Maple that went like this: If Maddux promised to beat cancer, Garbrandt promised he would make it to the UFC. Garbrandt had been a troubled youth who found his inspiration in Maddux. Maddux saw the local fighter Garbrandt as a hero.
They made the pact.
Both incredibly lived up to their ends of the bargain, which you can read about here. Maddux’s leukemia is in remission, and Garbrandt made it to the UFC. In that story, Maddux’s father said that his son’s ultimate dream was to one day walk Garbrandt out to the Octagon.
Well, that dream will be realized on July 11, when Garbrandt will take on Enrique Briones at UFC 189. Mic Maple told MMA Fighting that Maddux, who just turned nine in April, will accompany Garbrandt to the cage at the very same venue where the two “brothers” — the boy and the fighter, one indistinguishable from the other — upheld their promises to each other.
On Friday, Garbrandt told MMA Fighting how thrilled Maddux was when he heard the news.
“We were sitting on the couch when I told him, and his face got all beet red,” Garbrandt said. “He smiled so big, like the biggest smile I’ve ever seen on a kid, like seeing a kid get his ultimate gift. He just grabbed me and was just so thankful and so excited. He gave me a big ol’ hug.”
The person who ended up making it happen was UFC matchmaker, Sean Shelby, who caught wind of the story.
“Sean hit me up after the article came out and said I’m going to see if we can get Maddux to walkout for your next fight whenever that is, as that’s one of his dreams that he wanted to do,” Garbrandt said. “Sean took it and made it all come to fruition. So, obviously I got the fight. As soon as the fight was landed with Enrique, he said hey, don’t worry, I’m working on getting Maddux to walk you out. So he took the initiative to make it a priority to make it happen.”
Back in January, when the 23-year-old Garbrandt defeated Brimage and made the dedication, little did people know that Maddux was actually struggling. A video showed his reaction to the fight, but the whole week he was in Vegas was a tumultuous. Right at the heightened moment of so much coming together in his young life, the fear breaking over the mood was that he might be sick again.
“It was kept under wraps, but they thought his leukemia came back a week before they left [for the fight],” Garbrandt said. “He was sick the whole time, so we didn’t get to do much because he couldn’t walk. I had to push him around in a wheelchair, and he was a little embarrassed about being in it. But we made it fun. I said, I’ll push you, so we were popping wheelies and going off all over the MGM.”
Fortunately for Maddux, whom doctors are monitoring closely and checking every Thursday, it was a false alarm. With everything okay, he’s not about to miss the opportunity to walk Garbrandt to the Octagon.
“It was great of the UFC to do this, especially…man, I remember the days when Maddux couldn’t walk. It’s heart wrenching. To see how far he’s come, it’s just motivation for me. I know that I can accomplish anything in life after seeing him come from not being able to walk to now walking me to the cage. It’s amazing. It’s awesome.”
That’s not all. Next time Maddux sees Cody, things will be a little different. When Maddux gets to Las Vegas in July, he’ll be given the added benefit of meeting Garbrandt’s new girlfriend — UFC strawweight, Paige VanZant – whom he’s only heard about at this point. Garbrandt trains with VanZant at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, and has told each about the other.
“[Paige] hasn’t met him yet but she’s dying to,” Garbrandt said. “She just thinks it’s great that we share that special bond. There’s so much to it. I gained a little brother from it, and she thinks it’s great. She’s very excited to meet him.
“Maddux’s dad showed him some pictures of Paige and stuff. And Maddux said, ‘is that Cody’s new girlfriend?’ And he said, ‘yeah, she’s a fighter, too.’ And he said, ‘wow, she’s hot!’ So I told Paige about it, and she thought it was the cutest thing. She’s excited to meet him, and she’ll get to do that in Vegas.”
At 44 years old, Dan Henderson won’t be the oldest cat to step in the cage this month with the express purpose of purging a man of his consciousness. That honor belongs to Ken Shamrock, who at 51 is defying everything (protests, common sense, gravity) in his quest to purge the world of Kimbo Slice.
Difference is Henderson has fought ten times since Shamrock last did in 2010, and was treated ruthlessly in most. Shamrock’s return feels like a wild hair up his keister, just some crazy dad sh*t, while Hendo’s is…is winceable a word? Henderson still feels there are miles to go before he sleeps as he calibrates his overhand right to blow-up Tim Boetsch. If there’s anything he hates worse than forced displays of pre-fight emotion, it’s that pesky word “retirement.”
(And for the last time, if Henderson is headed for the glue factory, he’s going to damn well drive himself. Nobody tells Hendo what to do. Nobody).
Now, it’s possible that Henderson knows something that we don’t. It’s possible that his last fight with Gegard Mousasi was indeed stopped a little prematurely, and that even with one seeing eye he was about to turn the tables like he did with Shogun and force the UFC to dole out $50,000 in bonus money. It’s possible.
But not probable.
Based on the evidence, the probability was that Henderson was seconds away from losing anyway, and that referee Leon Roberts is above all things a merciful man. And really, even if you give Henderson the benefit of the doubt on that fight out in Stockholm, the previous one with Daniel Cormier can’t help but linger in the air. After all, that’s where Henderson was being flung through for nearly three full rounds. He was just a Rottweiler’s chew toy at UFC 173. There were no asterisks on that one; just lessons in aerodynamics.
That was his first fight off of TRT.
It doesn’t help that those fights came after he’d been knocked out by Vitor Belfort and nearly extinguished against Mauricio Rua before dropping a Hail Mary on him in the third round. Those happened while he was still on TRT. The calls for his retirement had already started to pick up steam going all the way back to when he was 42. Someday, when a biographer sits down to write Henderson’s story, there will be a lot of “why’d you do that?” moments to try and figure out. Why’d you go to Strikeforce? Why’d you fight into your mid-40s? Why’d you take those goofy pictures with your front teeth out?
(Tip for that biographer: Henderson is going to do what he damn well wants. Ain’t you or nobody going to tell him otherwise).
So that brings us to Saturday main event with Boetsch, who is perhaps the least menacing opponent Henderson has faced since a past-his-prime Renato Sobral five years ago in Strikeforce. Don’t think a 1-5 record over the last three years and a reckless habit of standing in the pocket are a perfect fit for a main event? Hendo cares what you think. He’ll try and put Boetsch’s head on a swivel, like he did against Michael Bisping at UFC 100, back when he was 39.
If he loses? If he gets knocked out? If he wades in squinting like he does to land the overhand and gets clipped by the Barbarian’s meat hook in the process? Believe it or not, those dour thoughts go into the total drama of UFC Fight Night 68’s headliner in New Orleans. Perhaps that is the only drama. The fate of a 44-year old man with a storied and stubborn career that has seen him through every port on the map wearing many belts (sometimes simultaneously).
People will tune-in to see the punctuation marks at the end of his career.
But if he wins? If he knocks Boetsch out, like he did Bisping, and Sobral, and Fedor, and Wanderlei Silva, and poor Crezio de Souza all the way back in 1997 when he was just 27 and still wore wrestling shoes? Well, you know what that will mean. Henderson will fight on. It’s in his Walla Walla blood. He will honor his contract, which he believes has three fights left on it. He’ll fight at 45 years old. And possibly 46. Possibly beyond.
In either case, Hendo is going to do what he damn well pleases. That’s how he’s always operated, and no additional scattering of wits — either his or otherwise — is going to persuade him from marching to the beat of his own drum. There’s something admirable about all that.
But if he can’t get his head out of the way of a big Tim Boetsch bomb, if he gets rocked and dropped and still comes back to compete and/or win, well — let’s just say admirable from winceable will look a lot alike.
At 44 years old, Dan Henderson won’t be the oldest cat to step in the cage this month with the express purpose of purging a man of his consciousness. That honor belongs to Ken Shamrock, who at 51 is defying everything (protests, common sense, gravity) in his quest to purge the world of Kimbo Slice.
Difference is Henderson has fought ten times since Shamrock last did in 2010, and was treated ruthlessly in most. Shamrock’s return feels like a wild hair up his keister, just some crazy dad sh*t, while Hendo’s is…is winceable a word? Henderson still feels there are miles to go before he sleeps as he calibrates his overhand right to blow-up Tim Boetsch. If there’s anything he hates worse than forced displays of pre-fight emotion, it’s that pesky word “retirement.”
(And for the last time, if Henderson is headed for the glue factory, he’s going to damn well drive himself. Nobody tells Hendo what to do. Nobody).
Now, it’s possible that Henderson knows something that we don’t. It’s possible that his last fight with Gegard Mousasi was indeed stopped a little prematurely, and that even with one seeing eye he was about to turn the tables like he did with Shogun and force the UFC to dole out $50,000 in bonus money. It’s possible.
But not probable.
Based on the evidence, the probability was that Henderson was seconds away from losing anyway, and that referee Leon Roberts is above all things a merciful man. And really, even if you give Henderson the benefit of the doubt on that fight out in Stockholm, the previous one with Daniel Cormier can’t help but linger in the air. After all, that’s where Henderson was being flung through for nearly three full rounds. He was just a Rottweiler’s chew toy at UFC 173. There were no asterisks on that one; just lessons in aerodynamics.
That was his first fight off of TRT.
It doesn’t help that those fights came after he’d been knocked out by Vitor Belfort and nearly extinguished against Mauricio Rua before dropping a Hail Mary on him in the third round. Those happened while he was still on TRT. The calls for his retirement had already started to pick up steam going all the way back to when he was 42. Someday, when a biographer sits down to write Henderson’s story, there will be a lot of “why’d you do that?” moments to try and figure out. Why’d you go to Strikeforce? Why’d you fight into your mid-40s? Why’d you take those goofy pictures with your front teeth out?
(Tip for that biographer: Henderson is going to do what he damn well wants. Ain’t you or nobody going to tell him otherwise).
So that brings us to Saturday main event with Boetsch, who is perhaps the least menacing opponent Henderson has faced since a past-his-prime Renato Sobral five years ago in Strikeforce. Don’t think a 1-5 record over the last three years and a reckless habit of standing in the pocket are a perfect fit for a main event? Hendo cares what you think. He’ll try and put Boetsch’s head on a swivel, like he did against Michael Bisping at UFC 100, back when he was 39.
If he loses? If he gets knocked out? If he wades in squinting like he does to land the overhand and gets clipped by the Barbarian’s meat hook in the process? Believe it or not, those dour thoughts go into the total drama of UFC Fight Night 68’s headliner in New Orleans. Perhaps that is the only drama. The fate of a 44-year old man with a storied and stubborn career that has seen him through every port on the map wearing many belts (sometimes simultaneously).
People will tune-in to see the punctuation marks at the end of his career.
But if he wins? If he knocks Boetsch out, like he did Bisping, and Sobral, and Fedor, and Wanderlei Silva, and poor Crezio de Souza all the way back in 1997 when he was just 27 and still wore wrestling shoes? Well, you know what that will mean. Henderson will fight on. It’s in his Walla Walla blood. He will honor his contract, which he believes has three fights left on it. He’ll fight at 45 years old. And possibly 46. Possibly beyond.
In either case, Hendo is going to do what he damn well pleases. That’s how he’s always operated, and no additional scattering of wits — either his or otherwise — is going to persuade him from marching to the beat of his own drum. There’s something admirable about all that.
But if he can’t get his head out of the way of a big Tim Boetsch bomb, if he gets rocked and dropped and still comes back to compete and/or win, well — let’s just say admirable from winceable will look a lot alike.
