Johny Hendricks vs. Robbie Lawler: Could the Rematch Be Even Better?

Sequels never live up to their billing.
Jaws 2, Son of the Mask, Evil Dead 2 and so on.
But unlike these cinematic reboots that are incapable of reproducing perfection, mixed martial arts offers pure, unscripted action.
That means that a sequel can be …

Sequels never live up to their billing.

Jaws 2, Son of the Mask, Evil Dead 2 and so on.

But unlike these cinematic reboots that are incapable of reproducing perfection, mixed martial arts offers pure, unscripted action.

That means that a sequel can be better than its original.

So when UFC welterweight-kingpin Johny Hendricks and top-contender Robbie Lawler step inside of the Octagon early next year, it’s possible that their second toe-to-toe installment will surpass their first.

It’s that sort of highly anticipated unpredictability that makes MMA the intriguing entity it is today, from the UFC all the way down to the amateur circuit.

But when you pin two of the very best fighters in the world against one another for five more rounds, the stakes go up.

However, despite the facts that Hendricks should be completely healthy coming into his first title defense and Lawler has arguably been better during this title run compared to his last, this sport never offers certainty.

Things could go awry and the two heavy-handed barbarians could miss with every swing.

But if momentum has shown us anything when it comes to two well-polished objects colliding at full speed it’s that stars are often born from such an imminent explosion.

Simply put, Hendricks vs. Lawler II will more than likely surpass its hair-raising prelude.

On one side of the spectrum you have Hendricks. As a guy who built his entire professional output around winning a world title, he will literally do anything to retain his championship.

That means that we could very well witness an even more dangerous and offensively acute “Bigg Rigg” than we’ve ever seen before.

One who will presumably come into this rematch with health on his side and the motivation to prove that nobody in the 170-pound division can come close to knocking him off his schnide.

On the other side of the spectrum you have Lawler. With arguably more impressive victories under his belt this time around compared to the first time he came into a fight opposite Hendricks, the 32-year-old has never looked better.

His skills have never been called into question, but Lawler seems to have entered his professional pinnacle, which is scary considering how good he’s been throughout the years.

You also have to take into account that “Ruthless” now knows what he has to do different in order to push Hendricks even further up the tree in their rematch.

He came so close the first time around, stunning the champ in succession, that it’s plausible that a few tweaks here and there could even the score at 1-1.

But when it comes down to it, after all the assumptions, predictions and potential fixes have been discussed breath-by-breath, the raw power that each welterweight enslaves their opponents with is really all that’s needed to enshrine their first meeting as a distant memory.

Hendricks may in fact opt to shoot more than he did the first time around, but there’s zero chance he doesn’t test the waters on the feet once again with Lawler.

Either way, whoever wins, the UFC welterweight division has seemed to find respectable draws between the two, which was a top promotional priority after Georges St-Pierre’s departure.

Whether Hendricks is able to outlast Lawler again or Lawler is able to strong-arm his way to UFC gold will be settled in early 2015.

It can’t come soon enough.

 

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Jon Jones Apologizes to Fans, Announces Surgery Set for Tomorrow

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has suffered a fairly serious knee injury that has pushed his grudge match with Daniel Cormier back from UFC 178 to UFC 182 and he feels for his fans in the situation. 
“Bones” posted on Facebook earlier th…

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has suffered a fairly serious knee injury that has pushed his grudge match with Daniel Cormier back from UFC 178 to UFC 182 and he feels for his fans in the situation. 

“Bones” posted on Facebook earlier this afternoon, apologizing to those who were looking forward to his September 27 showdown with Cormier, indicating that he will be undergoing surgery tomorrow to get healthy as soon as possible.

The champ suffered a torn left meniscus and a sprained ankle during wrestling practice at Greg Jackson’s MMA yesterday, with the injury occurring as Jones was defending a takedown from ex-Strikeforce/K-1 heavyweight titleholder Alistair Overeem, per Sherdog.  

Cormier was anything but sympathetic in the situation, noting that he has been dealing with knee issues of his own and his arch-nemesis could’ve done the same, per MMA Fighting

Lost in the shuffle now is Alexander Gustafsson, who gave Jones all he could handle at UFC 165 in September, in what was almost unanimously named “Fight of the Year” by members of the MMA media.

Gustafsson was originally going to meet Jones in a long-awaited rematch at UFC 178, but was replaced by Cormier after he suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee

Based on this Instagram post, it seems pretty clear that Gustafsson is unhappy that the UFC will continue to deprive him of a rematch in favor of Jones vs. Cormier

UFC 178 is now headlined by a flyweight title bout between Demetrious Johnson and Chris Cariaso, per UFC.com

Was the UFC justified in pushing back Jones vs. Cormier until next year or should the company have rebooked Jones vs. Gustafsson II? 

 

John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.

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UFC Fight Night 47 Preview: Ryan Bader Can Still Be Somebody at 205 Pounds

It’s easy to feel sorry for a guy like Ryan Bader.
OK—scratch that—more accurately, I suspect it’s easy for fight fans to feel absolutely nothing for a guy like Bader.
As he approaches his Saturday showdown with Ovince St. Preux…

It’s easy to feel sorry for a guy like Ryan Bader.

OK—scratch that—more accurately, I suspect it’s easy for fight fans to feel absolutely nothing for a guy like Bader.

As he approaches his Saturday showdown with Ovince St. Preux at UFC Fight Night 47, the former Ultimate Fighter winner is likely viewed by most as an athlete whose best days have come and gone without him ever reaching his full potential.

We’ve already seen Bader tested against the best in his division and come up wanting. At 31 years old and 15 fights into his UFC career, he’s a fully known commodity—eternally kicking around the outskirts of the 205-pound top 10, with a fleet of A-listers like Alexander Gustafsson, Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson between him and anything resembling top contender status.

He’s still regarded as a viable member of the UFC’s roster, but nobody’s going to get overly excited about him. At this point, it’s tempting to cast him merely as a measuring stick for up-and-comers. 

Any discussion of the light heavyweight pecking order—and we’ve been having a lot of those lately—casts Bader as an afterthought. An also ran. A nonfactor.

Honestly, that seems a bit unfair. It’s pretty easy to make the case that at this stage in his fighting life, Bader is being short-changed, unjustly overlooked and underestimated.

As of this writing, he’s going off as a slight favorite over St. Preux, in a fight met by widespread bemusement when it was announced as the main event of the Octagon’s first ever trip to Maine. With Gray Maynard vs. Ross Pearson slotted as the co-main event and a potential flyweight No. 1 contender bout relegated to the undercard, a scrap between two relatively off-the-radar light heavyweights seemed an odd, borderline desperate pick for top billing.

But that’s more of a commentary on the UFC’s unyielding live event schedule than a judgment of Bader or OSP. Truth is, this is a fine fight, though admittedly one that lacks the panache we’ve come to expect from “main event” contests.

St. Preux is riding a five-fight win streak—and is 13-1 dating back to Feb. 2010—but so far hasn’t been able to distinguish himself from the 205-pound pack. His last two fights have been pay-per-view curtain jerkers. In strict narrative terms, it would probably be most interesting for the division if he beats Bader and establishes himself as a legit player for the second half of the year and beyond.

Unfortunately, that might be a bit more of a long shot than the odds indicate.

Despite the fact Bader is largely regarded as lost property, he amounts to an enormous step up in competition for St. Preux. Though the stink of a shocking 2011 loss to Tito Ortiz has never quite dissipated, he’s earned his status as more than just a UFC gatekeeper, with wins over the likes of former UFC champ Quinton Rampage Jackson and Strikeforce titlist Rafael Cavalcante.

It bears repeating that, besides that fluky first-round choke-out by Ortiz at UFC 132, Bader has actually been pretty good. His other three career losses (he’s 17-4 overall) have come at the hands of Jon Jones, Lyoto Machida and Glover Teixeira.

Hard to fault him for any of those, especially considering he looked on the verge of stopping Teixeira in Sept. 2013 before a careless mistake left him on the wrong end of one of the Brazilian’s powerful punching combinations. Teixeira used the victory to springboard into a title shot against Jones at UFC 172.

So while Bader hasn’t ever lived up to what we imagined might be possible for him when he won TUF Season 8, he shouldn’t be totally discounted as a potential future contender. He’s still got a few years left in his athletic prime, and while he’s not going to unseat Jones or Cormier from the top of the charts, he certainly still has the ability to be among the high-level players.

If Bader takes care of OSP this weekend, he should creep up near the top five, and a well-placed call-out of another light heavyweight luminary—Johnson and Gustafsson suddenly seem in need of engagements—could bring him back to relevance in a hurry.

He’ll have won three straight and six of his last eight. He could end the year looking a lot less like a guy who needs our sympathy.

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UFC Fight Night 47: Why Sara McMann Shouldn’t Look Past Lauren Murphy

Sara McMann, No. 4-ranked bantamweight, will return to the cage for the first time since losing her title bid against Ronda Rousey. The former Olympian will need to look impressive if she hopes to rejoin the title race, but she has no easy task this Sa…

Sara McMann, No. 4-ranked bantamweight, will return to the cage for the first time since losing her title bid against Ronda Rousey. The former Olympian will need to look impressive if she hopes to rejoin the title race, but she has no easy task this Saturday.

The former title contender told Fox Sports’ Marc Raimondi that she wants a rematch with Rousey. She needs to remain focused on the task at hand against her next opponent.

McMann‘s opponent will be Lauren Murphy. Murphy is making her UFC debut with a perfect record 8-0 record.

Murphy did win the Invicta bantamweight championship, but that was due to a knee injury by Miriam Nakamoto. Murphy still performed well in the fight, but it was not a clean victory over a dangerous striker. Even with that noted, Murphy has rose from obscurity to become on of the best in the world at 135 pounds.

McMann has a tough task ahead of her.

Stylistically, McMann is a strong favorite in the fight. Murphy is a strong grappler but not the most skilled wrestler or striker. McMann, on paper, should be able to take her down time and again in this fight.

Murphy won’t give up the takedown that easily, and she has a solid jiu-jitsu background. She just has yet to employ it in her fights.

During her 8-0 run, Murphy stopped the first five of her opponents by TKO. With a step up in competition during her Invicta run, she got two decision wins under her belt before the unfortunate injury to Nakamoto in their title fight. It is arguable that her submission game is her greatest asset, and she has yet to bring it out.

Also, you should not be surprised if this fight is largely contested on the feet. McMann has shown in the past that she invites scraps.

She enjoys them. During her stint outside the UFC, McMann got into several stand-up battles.

Neither McMann nor Murphy are the most developed strikers, but both possess good power. If she stands in the pocket against Murphy, she is likely to take several damaging shots in the process. It will not be an effective strategy, but McMann invites the brawl from time to time.

The odds tell the taleMcMann is a minus-350 favorite heading into Saturday, according to Odds Shark. Those are accurate odds but also should show that Murphy may be getting overlooked in her UFC debut.

If that’s the case, Murphy could announce herself to the MMA world in a big way and inject her name into the discussion of title contenders.

McMann will likely rely on her wrestling background to control Murphy, but it will not be as easy as some may expect. Murphy is a talented and tough fighter who will push McMann in this fight. It could be just what McMann needs to rebound from her most recent outing.

If only this fight was not buried on Fox Sports 2. It is an intriguing battle against two of the best bantamweights going today. Will McMann dominate and keep her spot in the upper echelon, or will Murphy steal her place?

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UFC 182: Jon Jones’ Coaching Staff Provide Details Surrounding Knee Injury

MMA fans collectively slumped their shoulders on Tuesday when the UFC light heavyweight championship bout between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier, which was originally scheduled for UFC 178 in September, had to be postponed due to an injury to the ch…

MMA fans collectively slumped their shoulders on Tuesday when the UFC light heavyweight championship bout between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier, which was originally scheduled for UFC 178 in September, had to be postponed due to an injury to the champ.

Tristen Critchfield of Sherdog has the quotes from Jones’ camp, which indicates a takedown from UFC heavyweight Alistair Overeem caused the injury.

“It’s part of the game, it wasn’t like … somebody went for a flying kick and dislocated [something]. Somebody went for a takedown, [Jones] stepped the wrong way, twisted the wrong way and down he went. He was fighting it, and he just twisted it. And then it just popped,” said trainer Greg Jackson.

Jackson did say that while Jones won’t be able to do certain things (like kickboxing) during the early part of his rehab, the UFC champ will be able to do other things to train (like working off his back). That’s something that will likely come into play given Cormier‘s wrestling skills.

Speaking of Cormier and his skills, some additional quotes from assistant coach Brandon Gibson have puzzled some MMA fans. The Jones camp assistant told Critchfield:

One positive I think there is, is [Cormier] was having a shorter camp. … I’m sure he was going to be worried about getting in shape, and we didn’t want any excuses from him. This gives DC plenty of time to get better at every aspect he wants to get better at and heal whatever needs to heal.

Because when we face him, we want to face the best DC there is. No excuses.

It’s interesting that Jones is the one pulling out of the fight due to an injury, but his camp is concerned with Cormier making excuses.

Cormier‘s struggles to make a lower weight limit have been picked at by Jones, per the MMA Hour (via MMA Fighting’s Dave Doyle), but it’s more likely that Cormier was more concerned with a knee injury of his own. An injury to Cormier‘s LCL was believed to have required surgery, but the title challenger opted to hold off on surgery to face Jones at UFC 178.

Now Cormier will have additional time to heal up any nagging injuries and have a full training camp to face the UFC light heavyweight champ.

It’s unclear as to whether Jones’ injury will require surgery at the moment, but the two are scheduled to headline the UFC 182 card on January 3, 2015, in Las Vegas.

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UFC Fight Night 47: Who’s on the Hot Seat?

At UFC Fight Night 47, Ryan Bader and Ovince St. Preux will attempt to continue their respective climbs toward the top of the light heavyweight division.
With back-to-back wins since his loss to Glover Teixeira, Bader is about ready to get another crac…

At UFC Fight Night 47, Ryan Bader and Ovince St. Preux will attempt to continue their respective climbs toward the top of the light heavyweight division.

With back-to-back wins since his loss to Glover Teixeira, Bader is about ready to get another crack at a Top Five 205-pounder. Before then, he’ll have to go through St. Preux, who has not lost in his four UFC appearances and now has a spot in the Top 10 rankings.

Bader and St. Preux clearly have a good amount of job security heading into the weekend, but multiple UFC Fight Night 47 competitors could be fighting to save their jobs. Here are the individuals sitting on hot seats heading into Saturday’s event in Bangor, Maine.

 

Gray Maynard

He’s only three fights removed from his memorable pair of lightweight title fights with Frankie Edgar, but Gray Maynard has quickly fallen further from 155-pound title contention.

In his past two outings, Maynard has been knocked out by Nick Diaz and T.J. Grant in the opening round. While losing to those very tough lightweights wouldn’t put most fighters in this position, Maynard may need a win over Ross Pearson on Saturday to keep his spot on the UFC roster.

Losing to Pearson, who does not currently own a spot in the Top 15 lightweight rankings, would effectively eliminate Maynard as a contender in the division. At The Ultimate Fighter 18 finale, his most recent appearance, Maynard had the largest reported salary on the fight card despite losing to Diaz badly. If Maynard can’t remain relevant in the 155-pound title picture, he may have to choose between a cut in pay and working with a smaller MMA promotion.

 

Shawn Jordan and Jack May

While the UFC heavyweight division could use some depth, it doesn’t seem likely that the loser of this matchup will stick around.

Consecutive knockout wins over Mike Russow and Pat Barry had Shawn Jordan looking like a potential contender in the heavyweight division midway through 2013. The Savage hit a wall when he was matched up with Gabriel Gonzaga, though. Jordan was knocked out by the Brazilian and then suffered another opening-round knockout loss to Matt Mitrione in March.

Although Jordan is one of the more athletic heavyweights on the UFC roster, his technique hasn’t caught up with his physical assets. Should he lose a third straight fight against an opponent without a UFC victory, Jordan will be looking for a new promotion.

At 33 years old, Jack May got a late start to his UFC career in April. The kickboxer didn’t have much chance to showcase his skills, as he was knocked out by Derrick Lewis in the first round. While Jordan isn’t an easy matchup by any stretch, May can’t afford to fall to 0-2 inside the Octagon, as that almost always results in a fighter being released.

 

Tom Watson

A Jackson-Wink MMA fighter with solid experience prior to joining the world’s top MMA organization, Tom Watson looked to be a solid addition to the UFC middleweight division. However, he has mostly been a flop through four Octagon appearances.

Since his lone UFC win over Stanislav Nedkov, Watson has suffered two straight decision losses. Unable to defend his opponents’ takedowns, Watson was shut down on the ground by Thales Leites and Nick Catone, showing that he has a major weakness that Sam Alvey might look to exploit on Saturday.

Making his official UFC debut this weekend, Alvey is an adversary Watson needs to beat in order to prove he deserves a position on the UFC roster. Losing to the TUF 16 contestant, unless it’s in a Fight of the Night effort, would likely lead to Watson being cut by the UFC brass.

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