UFC 151: 'The Event That Never Was'

[Kawaii Guy]

Dan Henderson is my favourite fighter.

Every time a Hendo fight comes up, Jim goes for his opponent and I respond "H-Bomb". 3 of the last 4 I was on the money (including jokingly saying he would KO Fedor in the first round came true) the 4th of those fights was still a Hendo victory and the greatest fight I have ever seen. I am hoping the same tactic works here.

 

I know its unlikely, hes the huge underdog and all that, Ill just compare it to him taking on Wanderlei the second time in Pride. Any common sense I have for this fight is out of the window. My Prediction...

Hendo, round 2. KO.

 

for the rest of the card, Ill be sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for Hendo to make his entrance, however I believe the following will win their fights.

Jon Jones vs Dan Henderson -UFC Light Heavyweight Title

Jake Ellenberger

Thiago Tavares

Dennis Siver

Danny Castillo

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

For the sake of fresh matches in the LHW division, I'm pulling for Hendo, but realistically it's Jones all day. A submission in the later rounds is a good call. At 41, Hendo's cardio isn't going to improve too much, and Jones is fast enough to avoid the H-Bomb and use a lot of jabs and elbows. Don't know if we'll see him throw too many kicks with Hendo's wrestling ability. Have we seen Jones on his back for any extended period of time?

 

The rest of the card is meh. Joe Silva is a great matchmaker, but it really frustrates me when they have these one-fight cards, relying on the starpower of one guy. That's not to say the fights won't be good, there's just not a great deal of emotional investment. Although, Siver vs Yagin should be really fun and interesting. Yagin came out of nowhere in dominating Hominick, but if Siver can put him away, he could be fighting a Koch or Poirier in his next fight for no. 1 contendership.

 

*Looks up card on Wiki for more positives* My countryman, Kyle Noke is dropping to WW to fight Charlie Brenneman, if he can win impressively it could make a big statement in the division. No shame in losing to Ed Herman, and Andrew Craig is looking like quite the force at MW.

 

Umm... that's about it. Dennis Hallman is there- so long as he doesn't wear Speedos again I'm happy. Michael Johnson vs Danny Castillo? Belongs on a prelim, both guys are at the same level so I can't see a win or loss meaning much in the long run for either guy. Also, Castillo seems like a major douche in his interviews. The flyweight fight could be fun, but I don't really know either guy well. Benavidez beat Urushitani pretty definitively, wasn't very impressed by him in his debut.

 

The prelims are just kinda... there. And Jacob Volkmann's fighting, yay.

[Egg Shen]

Hendo for me is the greatest American MMA fighter of all time. Henderson has a very old school mentality when it comes to fighting though, he's never stuck around in one place for enough time to truly dominate a division (like GSP, Anderson), and he has a few lackluster losses on his record but when it comes to overall resume Henderson is near untouchable. Tito Ortiz did that ridiculous 'im the people's champ' schtick towards the end of his career, that's not a title you give yourself, it's earned and i think most people would agree that Henderson is the people's champion.

 

Speaking of the fight, i can't see anything past Jones winning via TKO or Submission. Jones has an aura of invincibility at the moment and i can't see anyone beating him...i'd love to see Henderson land a big punch, and Hendo's promised to put Jones on his back but i can't see it. I just hope Henderson actually goes at Jones and tries making it uncomfortable for him in there. People seem to freeze up against Jones and worry more about what he's going to do them rather than what they are going to do themselves...hopefully Hendo does that.

 

Hieron-Ellenberger is a strange co-main. It's the first time the UFC has signed someone who's been cast off from Bellator and at 36 years old it's a massive chance for Hieron to have one last crack at it. It's just reward though (though not co-main event status), Hieron's been one of the most underrated and unlucky fighters in MMA. They can obviously stick the rematch twist on this and sell it like that but it's still an odd fight to co-main event a PPV. Still, depending on odds i may take Hieron to take a decision, Ellenberger likes to stand and trade and he might have a frustrating night against the stick and move style of Jay Hieron.

 

Outside of that this is a really weak PPV card but it does feature guys that probably do deserve to be main card fighters, they just dont feel like main card fighters. I think if one of the 3 undercard fights were opening a PPV underneath a really strong lineup there'd be no problems but 3 fights makes it come across as weak. Still, i'll be tuning in...

[David]

Fuck it, I've went for Hendo by KO/TKO.

[Egg Shen]

#believeinhendo

[MichaelScarn]

I'm heading out to watch this at the end of the month, can't wait for it, never been to Vegas before (has been high on the bucket list for both UFC and poker reasons).

 

I just hope that Hendo puts his all into the main event and gives a decent showing. I'm getting flashbacks to Silva vs Coture for the title, which is one of my favorite fights ever. Can you imagine Rogan's reaction to a Hendo win? I'm not liking the fact that he is being so overlooked, just for the 'spoil the party' factor I want him to win. It seems rather disrespectful to me, for people in the MMA media, who aren't giving him enough credit to put up a fight (when already talking about Jones Machida 2). Perhaps its me being overly optimistic that it could be more than a squash match.

 

I'm hopefull that low expectations in the card as a whole will be proven wrong come end of the night. Apart from the main event, i'm looking forward to these:

Ellenberger vs Hieron

Siver vs Yagin

Noke vs Brenneman

 

Also a couple of signings with the Octagon Girls and Randy Coture beforehand, should round out a good UFC themed part of the trip.

[jimufctna24]

he's never stuck around in one place for enough time to truly dominate a division (like GSP, Anderson), and he has a few lackluster losses on his record but when it comes to overall resume Henderson is near untouchable. Tito Ortiz did that ridiculous 'im the people's champ' schtick towards the end of his career, that's not a title you give yourself, it's earned and i think most people would agree that Henderson is the people's champion.

The reason he did not stick around because there was always someone better than him and who beat him, be it Wanderlai in his prime in Pride, Rampage in 2007 or Anderson in 2008. I am aware he beat Wanderlai in 2007, but during Wanderlai's glory days Hendo was not considered number to be better than him and he stayed at that weightclass for a good while and dropped fights. To high level competition I admit, but again that is not something GSP or Anderson has done as often as Hendo.

 

The peoples champ of MMA I would say is Liddel or Couture they have the heart of the casual Amercian fan in a way Hendo has not quite reached, however I will put Hendo as the best American fighter ever. As said above Liddel dominated against decent guys and was considered number 1 is some circles, but a large chunk were Pride so it takes away a bit from his legacy. Couture simply lost too many times, he too had a tough schedule but not as tough as Hendo's who I agree does have a resume that is untouched, just not the wins and domination I value to put him ahead of GSP and Anderson. Couture also lost a lot more often than Hendo to be fair, he also suffered from the Liddel problem of reigning over divisions when a lot of talent were in Pride.

[jimufctna24]

Every time a Hendo fight comes up, Jim goes for his opponent and I respond "H-Bomb". 3 of the last 4 I was on the money

I will give you Babulu, Shogun and Fedor, but I ended up picking him against Fejao. Looking back I am not sure why I picked Babulu.

[The Natural]

Like everyone here, I want Dan Henderson to beat Jon Jones but I don't think he will. I either see Jones stopping Henderson with a third round submission or Jones winning a decision. Henderson will keep his record of never getting stopped by a KO/TKO. One fight card for me.

[David]

I see Josh Gross is questioning Dan Henderson's legitimacy as a fighter at this stage of the game in his latest column;

 

In a world defined by Jon Jones, he wouldn't have been asked to defend the UFC light heavyweight title against Dan Henderson.

 

Well, I presume not because in the absence of regularly injecting steroids (i.e. approved testosterone replacement therapy) Henderson, 41, couldn't, by his own admission, marshal the physical force to do what he's done the last few years.

 

And based on statements Jones made during a media conference call Tuesday -- essentially, athletes should not take the sort of stuff that helped Henderson extend his career, make a lot of money, and affirm a legacy as one of mixed martial arts all-time greats -- the 25-year-old champion comes off less than sympathetic regarding the challenger

[The Natural]

Dan Henderson vs. Mauricio Rua from UFC 139 free to watch on UFC.com for the UFC's build to UFC 151:

 

http://www.ufc.com/media/ufc-139-henderson-rua

 

The fight won the majority of 2011 Fight of the Year awards. I've always thought Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard II at UFC 125 was the 2011 Fight of the Year. I wonder if I'll ever change that opinion.

[wandshogun09]

Hendo vs Shogun is my favourite UFC fight ever I think. It was like a movie fight that shouldn't be possible in real life. Shogun vs Little Nog is my favourite Pride fight. And Shogun vs Vera is probably in my top 5 FOTY easily for 2012 so far. Basically what I take from this is that Shogun is the dog's bollocks.

 

Edgar vs Maynard 2 is up there though, as is Edgar vs Maynard 3 from UFC 136 which I think is actually vastly underrated.

 

Back on topic, Gross can fuck off. Hendo is awesome. Sonnen does TRT, Mir does it, Rampage did it, Reem fucks about with his levels. Why single Toothless Aggression out?

 

Nah, seriously I see his point but the fact is, it is now part of the sport and it has to be managed it won't just disappear. And it's legal right now as long as you stay within a certain range. If they can monitor TRT use in such a way that it prolongs careers of fighters like Hendo then I'm not against that. But there's a thin line between using and abusing and they need to watch it closely.

[David]

Back on topic, Gross can fuck off. Hendo is awesome. Sonnen does TRT, Mir does it, Rampage did it, Reem fucks about with his levels. Why single Toothless Aggression out?

 

Nah, seriously I see his point but the fact is, it is now part of the sport and it has to be managed it won't just disappear. And it's legal right now as long as you stay within a certain range. If they can monitor TRT use in such a way that it prolongs careers of fighters like Hendo then I'm not against that. But there's a thin line between using and abusing and they need to watch it closely.

Isn't the loss of testosterone simply a part of getting old though? Why should fighters be allowed to gain an advantage in that respect?

[Rey_Piste]

Whilst you do lose testosterone as you get older, TRT is only really prescribed if you have very low levels of it. A big cause for low levels of testosterone is hypogonadism which the main cause of is useage of steroids when they're younger.

[wandshogun09]

You're right but if it's legal you can also make the case of why shouldn't they?

 

If it's not abused then it's not really an advantage because they're simply using it to bring their testosterone levels to a 'normal' level on a par with their younger opponents.

 

I must admit though, I've never really been comfortable with guys pissing about with medication and stuff. In an ideal world I'd rather everyone fight 100% natural and may the best man win. But it will never be that way, athletes will always look for an edge or the latest age-defying wonder drug. So if TRT is going home to be legal then as long as it's carefully managed then we'll have to deal with it. It's up to Zuffa and the commissions to police it and draw the line on TRT use vs TRT abuse.