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Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler: Will Someone Get Knocked Out in Dallas?

Nobody mistakes the power that exists in UFC welterweight title contender Johny Hendricks’ hands, especially when it comes to his left hand. In 15 career wins, eight men tried to survive Hendricks’ onslaught to no avail, while an official total of six …

We say “an official total of six men” because while Hendricks did damage former UFC welterweight champion Georges “Rush” St-Pierre, he dropped a controversial split-decision verdict to St-Pierre, who to his credit, edged Hendricks out in significant strikes landed.

Still, Hendricks gets the chance for redemption this Saturday when he faces “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler at UFC 171 inside the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Much like Hendricks’ career often stands out because of his career wins, Lawler‘s career is defined by the fact that most of his wins have come via knockout. In fact, he has 16 KOs, which comes as no surprise given his experience in the sport.

The fact that Lawler can put guys away with more than just a left or right hand makes him even that much more of a threat to Hendricks. It also serves as one of the reasons why a number of MMA fans anticipate this bout ending inside the distance via one form or another of a knockout.

While no question exists that both can knock each other out, does that mean it will happen when the cage door shuts?

Absolutely not, and while both men appear primed for an intense five-round battle that promises to end before the championship rounds, the matchup on paper suggests that a decision will determine the new UFC welterweight champion.

After all, when it comes down to the bare bones of the matter, the knockout ability only tells a portion of the story, in comparison to other overlooked aspects of the bout.

For instance, consider Lawler‘s three-inch reach advantage. Anytime he lays hands on someone, he always hurts them badly, even if he can’t finish them.

In his UFC 167 win over Rory MacDonald, as well as in early-career bouts against Chris Lytle and Aaron Riley, Lawler proved that he can use his striking effectively to dictate the tempo of the bout while going the distance, even if he gets taken down a few times or put in precarious positions.

In other words, he won’t worry if he finds himself in a situation where he swings and lands with deadly intentions and yet can’t knock Hendricks out.

Lawler knows he can pick Hendricks apart if he needs to, even if it costs him the chance to finish the fight. Besides, no durable opponent on earth will discourage him from trying to blast someone with anything that might end the fight anyway.

“Bigg Rigg” will not go down on his home turf without making it a struggle, though. Remember, Lawler head kicked a durable young man in Bobby Voelker and earned a solid win, but rocking Voelker‘s dome like a hurricane does not compare to cracking Hendricks’ jaw.

So far, no welterweight can claim to have done that.

Also, if the bout reverts more to grappling than striking, then interest begins to peak further.

If Hendricks does get rocked or hurt, he holds his wrestling experience in his back pocket. Lawler normally struggles with guys who can outgrapple him and overall remove him from his element.

While Hendricks does not fit the mold of a grappler, his takedowns and top control can bring bad news to anyone who cannot stuff his attempts.

Still, even his wrestling, which can stifle Lawler if Hendricks sets it up properly, sees a solid counter in the form of impenetrable takedown defense. Sure, Lawler can get taken down, but he has solid defense.

In this fight, he will need it.

How would anyone say that as a fact? Because even though Hendricks initially weighed in heavy at Friday’s UFC 171 weigh-in, even a Bigg Rigg that looked zapped of his energy can still find a way to threaten Lawler with takedowns. If Lawler cannot stuff any of them, he will find himself in a world of hurt.

Once again, though, this bout is scheduled for five rounds, and just as Hendricks showed that he could go hard for 25 minutes against St-Pierre, Lawler can prove the same on Saturday night.

Even though both men can come in calm, calculated and committed to a game plan, fans should expect that they will show the hearts of a champion throughout the duration of the bout and not let the fight end inside the distance.

The result after the full five rounds may be controversial. If so, it will all but guarantee a rematch down the line.

Yet, with the vacant UFC welterweight title on the line, it would only be fitting that the bout end on the heels of an exciting, back-and-forth affair that gives us a tremendous look at the best of the welterweight division today—while helping us get excited to watch what happens in the UFC welterweight picture in the future.

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UFC: The Top 10 Venues to Never Host an Event

The UFC is the fastest-growing organization of the fastest-growing sport in the world, mixed martial arts.In the past two years, venues such as the American Airlines Center, the TD Garden (formerly the Boston Garden), Conseco Fieldhouse, the Palace of …

The UFC is the fastest-growing organization of the fastest-growing sport in the world, mixed martial arts.

In the past two years, venues such as the American Airlines Center, the TD Garden (formerly the Boston Garden), Conseco Fieldhouse, the Palace of Auburn Hills and Rogers Centre have all hosted their their UFC Events.

With the UFC recently signing a network deal with Fox, it continues to grow, and is working to be sanctioned in all 50 states, as they look to expand into international markets.

This list will cover the 10 most famous venues who have never hosted a UFC event that would make for an awesome experience.

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Strikeforce Overeem vs. Werdum: 3 Things I Learned in Dallas

When I entered the American Airlines Center on Saturday I proceeded through the entrance beaming with excitement and anticipation. After being up for 40 straight hours on Thursday and Friday, working and driving I had missed the weigh-in due to complet…

It was a steamy evening in the Lone Star state. After a high of 104 the temperature dropped to just below 80 degrees but inside the air was cool and electric with eager fight fans flooding in from every entrance. After three different people bailed on me I decided to do what any single man would do. I took a woman with me. Turns out she is a huge fight fan and yelled louder and more often than I did. After I had a cocktail, nachos and a pretzel I settled in for an evening of mixed martial arts.

As I watched the action unfold I learned a few things that I took with me. As I made the 700 mile trek back to central Tennessee I was alone and had a lot of time to think. I emerged from my journey thinking about three of the bouts from Saturday. After I took two weeks off from writing and another due to a glitch that literally would not allow me to publish for some reason I have returned to my world of mixed martial arts, my laptop and my thoughts.

1. Is Chad Griggs the real deal?

The first thing that I could not get out of my head was the Valentijn Overeem and Chad Griggs matchup. After being tossed to the canvas, Overeem seemed to completely wilt under the punches of “The Gravedigger.”

I am not certain if Griggs will climb far up the ladder in the heavyweight division. He has strung together three straight wins, but like Alistair Overeem, people question the quality of his opponents. Griggs has put together three wins in a row in the Strikeforce cage but they were over a overly hyped Bobby Lashley, a relative unknown in Gian Villante and an inconsistent Valentijn Overeem.

As soon as Griggs started to ground-and-pound Overeem the Dutch fighter seemed to just quit. Griggs seems to be the genuine article but we will have to see him compete against better opponents before we declare him to be the real deal.

2. Brett Rogers needs time to develop

Brett Rogers has dropped three in a row after being dominated once again by a much more experienced veteran. Yes it is true that he has lost three straight bouts, but those losses were to Fedor Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem and Josh Barnett.

I really don’t think we can sit here and say that Rogers is spent, a bad fighter or has a terrible ground game. The fact of the matter is the man beat a spent Andrei Arlovski and has since been thrown to the wolves. He simply needs time to develop and I think that he needs to return to his roots.

He can always get another Strikeforce, Bellator or UFC contract. But, for now the man needs to strengthen his body, mind and fighting spirit. He should do something similar to what Rocky Balboa did in the third Rocky film. Rogers needs to disappear from the spotlight for 12-18 months. He needs to train his wrestling, add some submission defense and offense and develop as a martial artist.

At this point he is just a heavy handed fighter who needs to improve. Josh Barnett easily took him down and submitted him with very little effort. Brett should train hard on the holes in his game and fight in regional shows. In my opinion he should take a year or so fighting in regional shows and when the time is right he can step back into the spotlight.

I think he should fight as often as possible. He can rack up some victories and work on his game and then after he has improved he can come back, but if he stays in the big shows and does not improve he will end up getting frustrated and may even quit. He is fighting guys who have three times as much experience as him. I personally would like to see him fight maybe 10 times in small MMA shows and get that experience he lacks.

If he does those things and returns he will be a much better martial artist. At this point he is not a complete fighter and that will keep him from the top unless he grows from a striker to a true MMA fighter.

3. Alistair Overeem is better than we thought despite a lackluster bout.

The main event ended up being quite disappointing. I have been saying for over a year that Fabricio Werdum is overrated despite his huge wins over Antonio Silva and Fedor. Some sites even had him ranked above Junior dos Santos even though three years ago dos Santos knocked out Fabricio in less than 90 seconds. My argument has always been that Fedor made a horrible mistake in his fight with Werdum and got trapped in a submission.

Anyone who has followed MMA closely over the last few years knows that Alistair Overeem is a very different fighter than he was when he lost to Fabricio in Pride. Alistair has improved his speed and strength, added “40 pounds of whoop a–” to his frame and won the 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix. Werdum has improved his standup quite a bit but to me is still very much the same fighter he was in 2006. Those improvements on the part of the Strikeforce heavyweight champion made all the difference.

The entire fight Alistair tried to move forward and make it exciting. Werdum repeatedly refused to do anything but flop on his back. The odd part was that Werdum seemed to be landing good combinations on the feet but his only gameplan seemed to be pulling Alistair into his guard. When that would happen Overeem would promptly stand back up. Werdum seemed to think he was in a jiu jitsu match and not a mixed martial arts bout.

Any time that Overeem would land a good punch Werdum would just drop to the ground. There was an article that I read today where someone tried to argue that Werdum won the fight due to landing more punches. That is absurd. I was there and I saw Werdum land but never hurt Overeem and then lay on the mat. Werdum was winded by the end of round one and he never hurt the champion.

He never hurt him in the fight and he was rocked at least three times that I saw. Fights need to be won on damage not silly statistics. Alistair landed less punches but they were hard power shots that caused Werdum to back up and then fall to the ground to avoid further damage. There is no way that anyone could score that fight in the favor of Fabricio Werdum.

MMAfighting.com had Overeem ranked as the No. 3 heavyweight after the win. So, clearly the win still skyrocketed his stock even though it was a lackluster affair. The fact of the matter is that Overeem tried to make it a fight and Werdum repeatedly refused. At one point Werdum was laying on his back begging Alistair to come into his guard.

If he wanted him in his damn guard he should have taken him down. No one is going to just jump into the ground game with a former grappling world champion. Werdum looked awful in this fight.

In the end the “Demolition Man” proved that he was the better man and that he is in the top five in the world. Alistair Overeem is an elite heavyweight mixed martial artist. Many of us knew it already but now he will less detractors. Yes, the fight was pretty awful but Overeem was the only one who showed up to fight.

Either way he won and now he will face Antonio Silva later this year. That fight will be much better because Silva won’t be flopping on his ass every five seconds. Silva will be there to fight. I lost some respect for Werdum on Saturday and I only hope he returns is impressive fashion.

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Strikeforce Dallas Results: Fabricio Werdum Was Robbed, but Not of a Victory

Last night, Fabricio Werdum and Alistair Overeem collided in a rematch of their PRIDE Shockwave 2006 bout, and to say the least, the main event came in with explosive potential but left many fans unsatisfied.Truthfully, those who have heard that Wer…

Truthfully, those who have heard that Werdum actually outstruck Overeem but did not believe it. You guys heard right, Werdum did land more punches on Overeem than what the crowd saw.

Overeem landed the shots that mattered, and that’s what the two judges saw—him landing the important shots that hurt Werdum, as well as the takedowns and him neutralizing the Jiu-Jitsu of Werdum. And yet, some were quick to wonder if Werdum got the raw end of the unanimous decision.

If someone’s translation of “getting the raw end of the decision” means “Overeem lost the fight,” then I’ll have some of whatever they’ve got loaded into their pipe.

Was Fabricio Werdum robbed?

Absolutely.

Was Fabricio Werdum robbed of a fight that he should have won?

Absolutely not. And when you analyze the atrocity that was his performance fully, you should land on why the judges should not have been so kind to Werdum, as nice as he is as a man.

He may have outstruck Overeem by one margin or the next, but other than at the midway point of round two when Werdum looked to actually hurt Overeem—which fans of PRIDE know is not that surprising—how willing was Werdum to stand with Overeem?

If my memory serves me right for once, Werdum shot for takedowns. Overeem stuffed all of them—which, in today’s MMA circles, is heart-attack-shocking when talking about a guy that’s taken K-1 fights—and Werdum tried to pull guard every time.

By no means did the plan to take Overeem down qualify as unintelligent, and I actually did think he needed to in order to beat him, but Werdum should have gotten the message after the second attempt failed.

If Overeem sprawls to stuff a takedown, and he’s fighting a good Jiu-Jitsoka like Werdum while connecting with said sprawl, that’s Werdum’s cue to let his hands go.

And the most disappointing thing about all this?

Werdum’s performance is not a reflection of his actual ability by any means; the fight was a stylistic disaster for fans of fun fights from the get-go but was heavily hyped because Overeem had a loss to Werdum that he needed to avenge.

Plus, Werdum had beaten Fedor Emelianenko almost a year earlier, and no fight against “The Reem” is a fight that his challengers these days are supposed to win outside of a terrible decision, unless they’re UFC Heavyweights or they have a first name of Fedor.

However, Werdum did beat Fedor, who went on to lose to Antonio Silva in the second quarterfinal of this Grand Prix, and Werdum was argued as the best heavyweight in the world besides Cain “The Terminator” Velasquez. Overeem, however, wasn’t even a consensus top-5 pick, so of course there was excitement coming into this fight, and none of us should regret getting excited about it.

Fabricio Werdum is a great Jiu-Jitsoka, and he may go down as perhaps one of the best to ever grapple in MMA when he reaches the tail-end of his career, and he was ranked as the consensus second-to-third best heavyweight in the world before this fight.

Unfortunately, Alistair Overeem, despite an apparently low gas tank that I still find to be a myth and an excuse used by detractors to discredit this obvious heavyweight force, came to fight last night.

Fabricio Werdum did not, or at least his performance made him look as though he did not.

The winner of the Strikeforce Grand Prix, whether it’s Overeem or not, will arguably be considered one of the two best, if not the best heavyweight in Mixed Martial Arts when all is “Good Night, Irene!”, to quote the great Michael Schiavello.

Some think Overeem can do it. Others now say Silva can do it. While even others are sold on Josh Barnett or Sergei Kharitonov being the man that could take it all. But one unfortunate definite still exists:

With Werdum’s effort last night, I’m not so sure if we can keep “Vai Cavalo” in that debate any longer.

As far as last night alone goes, he got robbed, but if you watch the fight again, the only thing he got robbed of was a score that was a true reflection of his performance.

Generally, if Werdum loses a decision, he should lose it by either of the two scores the judges gave out last night.

From the eyes of many in the MMA world, the scores he got were too generous.

Now something along the lines of 30-26 or even 30-24, with Overeem winning at least one round 10-8 due to Werdum stalling the fight and not showing willingness to engage?

That sounds like a more honest and accurate score to me.

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Strikeforce Dallas: What Fabricio Werdum Must Do to Beat Alistair Overeem

Let me start by saying right off the bat that if you are looking for me to say “Fabricio Werdum must do the exact same thing he was able to do with Fedor Emelianenko, and take Alistair Overeem’s punches to lure him into the ground” at anytime during th…

If Fabricio Werdum does the exact same thing that he was able to do with Fedor Emelianenko, he will not be able to make good on his vow to “take the other arm” of The Reem because Alistair will be able to back Werdum up against the cage, come forward at a turbo-charged level, and deliver a blitzkrieg of punches and Uberknees to Werdum, meaning this rematch doesn’t last long.

Werdum needs to do the one thing that only Overeem might expect and might have prepared for, and that’s keep Overeem at bay with his reach before taking him down.

Clearly, Overeem is better in the striking, and to the dismay of Werdum, he’s the type of fighter that will use his fists as well as his knees, elbows, and occasionally his legs to chop and blend body parts on the ground regardless of whether he has any business on the ground with them or not.

Werdum may have a strength disadvantage in this rematch with Overeem, but that doesn’t mean that Werdum can’t at least try for a trip takedown and work his game from the top.

It won’t be easy getting Reem to the ground without being tempted to pull guard and hope Reem jumps into it, but Werdum’s last fight proved that fighters can pull out anything at any time.

Taking Overeem down himself in order to get the fight into his world is one of those things, and he could very well get it done tonight.

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Strikeforce Dallas: What Brett Rogers Must Do to Beat Josh Barnett

Probably one of the more interesting bouts in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, Brett Rogers, designated as “The Grim Reaper” in most circles of MMA due to his ability to finish fights quickly and in brutal fashion, gets the biggest test of his c…

Of course, Barnett has said that he’s no longer “Babyfaced,” so his old nickname may not apply much to him now, but the claim of being one of the best Catch-Wrestlers in the business and having a very well-rounded game–which he can use aggressively without being reckless–still applies.

Rogers has some good Muay Thai and some very notable Boxing, which is a problem for Barnett to begin with, but the key here for the “leaner and meaner” Rogers is to use some wrestling in reverse.

If this event live from the American Airlines Center in the city of Dallas, Texas–roughly 30 minutes from where I reside quite proudly, I might add–is your first event and you don’t know how to use wrestling in reverse, the basics of it is this:

If Barnett goes in for a takedown, Rogers must sprawl to stuff the takedown attempt, stand up as quickly as he can, and throw an uppercut before landing a nice one-two combo whenever possible.

If defending the takedowns opens the doors for a chance to stand in the pocket, even better, but unless Rogers has evolved to where he actually has some takedowns and some overall Wrestling that’s good enough to at least neutralize Barnett’s strengths, his best bet is to keep it standing and go for the finish.

If it’s any extra motivation: Rogers is a heavy underdog to win here tonight, so what better way to shock all of MMA (and create a stylistically intriguing fight with Sergei Kharitonov) than to knock Josh Barnett out?

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