Jon “Bones” Jones is an overwhelming favorite as he heads into his UFC 151 battle with Dan Henderson, as everyone in the MMA world understands to a tee.
Having defended his UFC light heavyweight crown three times successfully after thoroughly and lopsidedly dismantling Mauricio “Shogun” Rua to claim the belt, Jones’ creative offense and unpredictability inside the cage look to showcase themselves in full against Henderson, who possesses a solid wrestling game, as well as arguably the most legendary right hand in mixed martial arts.
Many predict that Jones will find a way to defeat Henderson as he did Rua, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Lyoto Machida and “Suga” Rashad Evans. In the process, he will likely show us something we’ve yet to see in MMA, but while a number of fans give Jones a good chance to win, that same bunch seems to give Henderson very little chance to prevail on Saturday night.
Only if Henderson finds himself fighting through some sort of nagging injury will he truly lack much of a chance to beat Jones, as any sort of pre-fight injury could always distract Henderson and cause him to not unleash his right with the ferocity we know he’s capable of unleashing.
That said, if anyone could pack the power needed to threaten Jones, who better than Henderson to do it?
Not only does Henderson have the power needed to threaten Jones, but also Henderson plays the underdog role in this fight, and if his past outings proved any indication, Henderson’s at his best, as well as his most dangerous, when he’s given no chance to win legitimately. Jones’ chin has been tested before without question, but Machida didn’t land with Henderson’s power and neither did Evans.
If Jones can take the powerful right hand of Henderson and still come back to mount a victory over the PRIDE legend, he may indeed live up to his word of becoming the very first man to stop one of the greatest MMA fighters of this or any other generation.
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