Jump to content

UFC 171: Hendricks vs Lawler


wandshogun09

Who wins and how?  

26 members have voted

You do not have permission to vote in this poll, or see the poll results. Please sign in or register to vote in this poll.

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 113
  • Created
  • Last Reply
Perhaps but I personally don't buy it. Hendricks looked ill and gaunt as hell. On top of that he was shaking on the scales. I'd go as far as saying he looked like shit.

You think he looked ill? I thought he looked the same as he always does. He looked nervous if I'm honest, as a dodgy scale isn't what you need in your life in the build up to a title fight, but his reaction upon making weight wasn't the reaction of an ill man.

 

The fight night drama started early on Friday afternoon in Dallas, as Johny Hendricks nearly missed weight for his pivotal welterweight clash against Robbie Lawler ahead of UFC 171.

 

For Hendricks, and for the UFC, a botched weight cut would've been a catastrophic turn of events for a welterweight division looking to move on from the shadow of its former champion, Georges St-Pierre. And for a few suspenseful hours, the situation looked more dire than promotion officials probably would've liked.

 

An unsteady Hendricks tipped the scales at 171.5 pounds in his first attempt during UFC 171's official weigh-ins, 1.5 pounds off his intended mark.

 

"It was just shocking," UFC President Dana White said moments after Hendricks successfully made weight on his second attempt. "Because Johny Hendricks always makes weight, and he's with (Mike) Dolce. Dolce's guys always make weight. The only thing that makes sense is that their scale was off that they were weighing in on at the hotel."

 

Hendricks managed to drop the extra 1.5 pounds within his allotted two hours due to some light calisthenics, according to Dolce, then successfully hit 170 pounds on the nose during his second attempt.

 

"Johny's scale might have gotten damaged at the hotel gym earlier today," Dolce commented. "We did light workout and the weight fell off easily."

 

Nonetheless, UFC officials had already prepared a back-up plan in case Hendricks failed to make weight a second time.

 

"If Lawler would've won, he would've been champion," White explained. "If Hendricks won, the title still would've been vacant. Obviously not the best scenario to be going into tomorrow, but it is what it is. And I had a good feeling. Those guys, like I said, they're both very professional, and I thought they'd get it done."

 

Lawler avoided much of the spectacle, hitting his mark at a chiseled 170 pounds on his first attempt.

 

Though despite a rough day, Hendricks appeared in high spirits once the situation resolved itself, roaring to his elated crowd of supporters and then sprinting out of the building, while White and the gathered UFC officials breathed a heavy sigh of relief -- one disaster averted, at the least.

 

"This kid's been competing like this for years as a wrestler," White said. "I'm sure he's had to cut weight (in a pressure situation) before, and go back in the room and make it

 

"The question is, at this point now, does he gas out? I don't know. We'll see tomorrow."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm watching Dana's pre-fight scrum and he's on about Diego Sanchez. Someone said that Diego has been talking about not fighting so recklessly and Dana replied with something like - 'He can say he's going to fight differently and that you can only have so many wars, but once he gets hit...' and 'the thing is it's that crazy style that scored him the knockdown on Melendez' - I'm paraphrasing but it was something like that.

 

It's no surprise to hear him talking like this and I'm not saying Diego won't revert to that wild style, but something doesn't sit right with me, hearing a promoter talking like this. The way it sounded was like he thinks Diego shouldn't be less reckless and should just carry on getting in wars. He even said Diego was "like fighting a zombie". The sad thing is, Diego is starting to sound like a zombie these days.

 

I'm a hypocrite, I love watching Diego go to war as much as anyone, but there comes a point when you just can't fight like that anymore. I don't want to see him all fucked up in retirement like so many of my favourite boxers. To hear Dana basically egging it on is a bit disturbing. There's truth in what he's saying but still, it's the total opposite of the concern he showed for Chuck Liddell at the end of his career. He begged him to retire yet he's kind of urging Diego to just keep fighting that dangerous style, even when Diego is saying he's trying to change things up.

 

If Diego goes out tomorrow night and grapples his way to a dull decision, you know Dana will be his loudest critic. But what more can Diego give than he's already given? He's not one of the top earners, yet he's taking insane punishment fight in-fight out. If he spends the rest of his career fighting 'safe', whatever, he's already had an unbelievable career full of amazing fights.

 

All this is probably moot really because I can't see him actually fighting more intelligently at this stage. He's been so set in his ways for the last decade. But if he does switch up his style and it gets results, even if it's not what Dana wants, fair play. It sounds harsh but I doubt Dana will be there to pick up the hospital/brain scan bills for Diego once he's retired. He'll be pissing about blowing money in casinos or something.

 

Has anyone seen Dana bragging recently about his gambling? He was on about it a few weeks back, saying he can win or lose into the millions of dollars on a given visit to the casinos. He's also been known to tip waitresses thousands of dollars. Yet what does a guy like Diego make a year? Dana also got all arsey when Wanderlei Silva wanted a PPV cut. Then there's the whole sponsorship thing which Nate Quarry went into detail about.

 

None of this surprises me, combat sports have always been rife with greedy promoters. But yeah, I'm hoping Diego fights completely different. When you've been in as many wars as he has, what's the point keep getting into another one? He's got nothing to prove where toughness is concerned. And it's not even getting him results.

The thing is, fans are prone to see the ticket give-aways, the jeans and t-shirt look, the cursing and swearing, the "fight week, blog week" videos and the like and forget that Dana White is still a promoter.

 

He may not be reserved, wear an ill-fitting suit and look like your dads sleazy salesman friend, but he is still that guy.

 

The UFC can harp on about paying fighters well and other nonsense, but the truth is that they don't. They operate in the same way that their parent company does, they don't allow a unionised workforce, and the threat of losing your job is always hanging over your head.

 

A fighter can sign a four fight deal with the UFC, do really well, get offered a more lucrative fight like Randy Couture did, and they'll get taken to court and forced into retirement on the back of that deal.

 

If the fighter doesn't fight an exciting fight though, the deal doesn't mean shit. They can get fired any time Dana decides he's had enough of seeing them.

 

It's all very one-sided in the companies favour. The truth is, if Dana White was Scott Coker or Gary Shaw he'd be vilified by the MMA community, and rightfully so.

 

If you're not a "stand & bang" fighter, or a top PPV draw, then Dana White really couldn't give two shits about you or your health problems. Diego Sanchez will most likely be a brain damaged fool later in life. He's only 32 and he already looks as though he has issues stringing s sentence together and being able to coherently express his thoughts.

 

As you say though, Dana and the Fertitta's won't give a shit.

 

The best thing that can happen for the sport in general is that Bellator get some serious backing from Spike and start to grow to the point where they can offer guys some really good money to fight over there.

 

Sooner or later you'll see the up & comers who the UFC aren't willing to pay well move over, and the UFC will be left with an ageing roster of stars from a previous era. It'll take time, but it could happen.

 

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how Bellator work as far as cutting guys goes? Do they do the same thing as the UFC? I've only really seen guys being let go when their deal ends over there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
Will this be on an hour earlier than usual for us?

 

Yeah mate, midnight for the prelims, 2am main card. I meant to put that in the opening post actually.

 

David - yeah I'm not sure how it goes with Bellator. They don't seem quite as cold about cutting guys on face value, but then again their roster isn't as big so they can't really afford to let guys go so often. As they grow we'll get a better idea I'm sure. They're definitely good for the sport though. The Gilbert Melendez situation showed that they're a real alternative for fighters to either fight somewhere else for comparable money, or drive your price up with the UFC.

 

Since you mentioned him there, I forgot all about Scott Coker. That's a guy you never hear a bad word about. Of all the fighters who passed through Strikeforce over the years I don't think I ever heard anything but good things about him. It's very rare a fight promoter is pretty much universally liked but he was as close as you can be. Shannon Knapp with Invicta is similar, although she's only been promoting a relatively short time.

 

 

I had a feeling it'd be a mix up with the scales with Hendricks. I haven't watched the weigh in yet so can't really comment on his appearance there, but watching his media scrum I thought he looked a bit thinner in the face than he usually does on fight week. I put that down to him maybe trying to lean out a little bit incase it goes five rounds. He kind of took his foot off the gas late against GSP so I'm sure he's worked a lot on maintaining his explosiveness into the championship rounds. Then again, it's hard to tell when guys are cutting weight. He'll most likely look exactly the same in the cage tonight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

Rogan on Robbie Lawler;

 

"He shouldn't have been fighting at middleweight in the first place. He's not big enough to be fighting at middleweight. When you're fighting the elite fighters -- when you're fighting the best in the world -- you should be fighting at your optimum weight class. Which is one of the reasons why I think Lyoto Machida is so impressive."

 

"He did so well at 205 (light heavyweight). Lyoto Machida is a natural middleweight. He used to weigh in at 203, 204, 202 and he wasn't cutting any weight. He was just a 203 pound guy. Now, he's cutting weight and you're going to see some spectacular fights from Lyoto Machida. The question is: should he have done it earlier? I think he probably should have."

 

"I think Robbie Lawler didn't really belong at 185 pounds. He just decided to campaign at 185 pounds, for whatever reason. He did well at middleweight, he beat some good guys. But there's a difference between the Robbie Lawler at 185 and the Robbie Lawler at 170."

 

"At 170, he's way harder to take down and he still hits just as hard. He's scary as fuck, man. Robbie Lawler is a frightening dude. There's also something about him. He doesn't get nervous that other dudes get. They told him he was fighting for the title and you know what he said? He said, 'cool.' THAT'S IT! That's not normal."

 

"That's not the guy you want to fight. You don't want to fight the guy who doesn't give a fuck and just says 'cool.' Robbie Lawler fucking loves to fight, man. He's not doing it for a job. He just has this deep burning fire inside of him that doesn't manifest into emotions. He's a scary dude. He can knock anyone out at 170 pounds."

 

"He's a dangerous mother fucker. Robbie in a lot of ways is a more dangerous opponent for Johny Hendricks than Georges St-Pierre. Georges has always been a more calculating and measured striker. He's never been a one-punch, one-kick guy. He just isn't. Georges is a volume striker."

 

"Can Johny Hendricks win? Most definitely. Can Robbie Lawler win? Most certainly."

 

Still think Hendricks' wrestling will decide this one, but what an exciting fight this is on paper. GSP might be the best of all-time, but this fight is such a refreshing change of pace for the division.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

I just wanted to add I can't fucking wait for this. I'm watching everything from midnight onwards. God bless clocks in the US changing before ours.

 

For me, Bermudez upwards on the card are great to must see fights.

 

I think we're in for something truly special.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Still think Hendricks' wrestling will decide this one.

 

Nailed it. Lawler had much better TDD than I expected, but that 5th round takedown basically gave Hendricks the title.

 

Great, great, fight. Close to Jones/Gustaffson for me. Lawler came so close, and made a solid argument for a rematch given the way this card played out.

 

Before the main event, the show was a little disappointing. This was meant to sort out a post-GSP welterweight division, but instead made it murkier. I took great pleasure in seeing Lombard completely dominate Jake Shields in every aspect of MMA, but the fact that he couldn't maintain the violence will have Dana sour on the whole thing, which is a shame. I personally enjoyed it, but if it wasn't Shields getting smothered, I probably wouldn't have liked it as much.

 

Condit vs. Woodley appeared to be shaping up to be a very nice fight, until that freak injury. One of those fights that doesn't really help the winner or is detrimental to the loser. I don't think anyone watching that would say that Woodley deserves to be ahead of Condit in the rankings. I realise Woodley's takedown technically caused it, but the whole affair just comes across very anticlimatic for both parties.

 

Diego Sanchez was in an average fight, wow. Jury gets a name win on his resume, but I don't think it was a career making performance. One punch on Diego's scar tissue (that I wish you saw) made it look a bit more dramatic, but it was realistically pretty pedestrian.

 

Outside of the clearly great main, I really enjoyed Kelvin vs. Rick Story. Terrific see-saw battle. And Dennis Bermudez came through in truly dominating fashion, he's definitely getting a bump up with the attention placed on his win streak.

 

Thumbs up overall, we have a new welterweight champion, no controversy IMO and that fight really saved the show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cracking Main Event, even if I did not get the result I wanted.

 

48-47 was the right score, the judges got it right. Let me tell you though, GSP may not have produced a performance as exciting as what Hendricks and Lawler managed tonight, but in his prime he would have schooled both.

 

Styles make fights, and Lawler would have been tied in knots by GSP mixing up his takedowns and jabbing from a distance. GSP's footwork would have been too much for Lawler to get anything going. Similar with Hendricks. GSP in his pomp would have danced rings around Hendricks, and jabbed him all night long. The knee injuries I believe took away the speed and explosiveness that gives GSP the edge over any Welterweight ever.

 

Lawler proved to be the better boxer in my opinion, by a slight margin. If Lawler would have got going a bit earlier he would have won. His success in the 3rd round seemed to give him a bit more confidence to throw with more aggression. Lawler carried that into round 4, but those brutal leg kicks caught up to Lawler in the 5th (and possibly his cardio)

 

Hendricks to his credit worked through that cut, and showed some fight I.Q by going for clinches and takedowns in the 5th round. Hendricks is still no general though, he leaves his opponents a lot of scope to steal rounds. Hendricks as Champion? He might become the new Matt Hughes to myself, just not universally hated. Plus I loved to hate Matt Hughes, I just dislike Hendricks.

 

Lombard and Rory should be licking their lips, both have a decent chance to be Champion by years end.

 

Nick Diaz heckled Hendricks during the weigh in. The video's are here - http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1993577...eigh-in-attempt

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

Nick Diaz announced his coming out of retirement tonight as well. He's eyeing a fight in July apparently.

 

Incredible main event. Both showed a shitload of toughness and heart tonight. That's the type of performance that can make a star. Hendricks showed improvement in his striking overall to me. He's better than he was a year ago that's for sure. Better combinations, better kicks, more movement. And more than anything he had to come back from adversity tonight, which he'd never had to show really in previous fights.

 

And what a story this Robbie Lawler resurgence has been. If someone had said when Strikeforce shut down, that Robbie Lawler would go 3-0 upon his return to the UFC, challenge for the title and very nearly win the thing, you'd think they were taking the piss. But he's really stepped up.

 

It was pretty cut and dry to score. I had Hendricks taking rounds 1 and 2, Lawler taking 3 and 4, and it all came down to the last round. Proper edge of the seat stuff. And Hendricks just had that little bit extra, and the crucial extra tool of wrestling. Lawler had defended the takedown so well all night but Hendricks got his tactics right early with the leg kicking, it paid dividends in that fifth round. I think it was a combination of those leg kicks and Lawler getting tired which helped Hendricks get that much needed takedown late. And that made the difference.

 

I'm amazed both guys were able to hang in there from some of the shots they both ate tonight. Especially Hendricks in the 4th and Lawler in the 5th.

 

Providing he's not out too long, I think Condit vs Lawler makes sense now. Hendricks next challenger though? Fuck knows. Woodley, Rory...fucking hell, Nick Diaz? Not much would shock me at this point.

 

The way Condit vs Woodley ended sucked scrotum. Was shaping up to be a cracker as well because I really thought Woodley was slowing down and that's when Condit would've stepped up. Now we'll never know.

 

Jury looked decent. He did about what I expected. Glad Lombard won but it's kind of ironic how he blasted Shields for being boring then does pretty much nothing for about 13 of the 15 minutes. Frustrating fight. It's not that he didn't KO Shields, Shields isn't easy to finish at all. Just frustrating because Lombard looked fantastic whenever he actually did do something. His striking looked as lethal as ever as expected, but his sprawling and his Judo throws were pretty spectacular also. But he seemed content to just ride out the clock.

 

Pick of the prelims were Gastelum vs Story and Andrade vs Pennington. Two really exciting fights and two wins for promising young fighters with a lot of potential. Gastelum is quickly becoming must-see for me. I like Jessica Andrade as well. I think she's a bit too small for 135 though, and too big for the upcoming 115 division. So it's hard to see how much further she can go. Fun to watch though.

 

Pretty good show, I thought.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hendricks showed improvement in his striking overall to me. He's better than he was a year ago that's for sure. Better combinations, better kicks, more movement. And more than anything he had to come back from adversity tonight, which he'd never had to show really in previous fights.

I did not see that much of an improvement. I just think in the second round Lawler was too hesitant in pulling the trigger, which led to him losing a round that he had the ability to win. Hendricks has added layers to his striking with leg kicks, but other than that I could still see a Rory or a prime GSP picking him off from distance with jabs.

 

Once Lawler found his rhythm and confidence in the 3rd, he bossed Hendricks for 2 rounds. The problem in the 5th was that Lawler slowed down and Hendricks deployed some takedowns and clinch work.

 

Both showed heart, and proved they have granite chins, but neither showed me that they could be Champion for a number of years. I think Hendricks is vulnerable as Champion, and whilst he will probably make a few title defenses, I think either Rory, Lombard or Woodly will beat him. 170lbs is wide open now GSP is gone/weathered.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

1/4 into the final round I was thinking how funny/peculiar it would be if Hendricks won the title, despite looking like the bloke that got a pasting. However, he managed to put it together and properly hurt Lawler so much that he could no longer just plow forward with his great jabs etc. Both men are excellent fighters, though. Not much in it, so I'm hoping we get a re-match soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No love for the Spencer/Garcia prelim? On most other shows they would've got a bonus.

 

48-47 was the right score, the judges got it right.

 

Not without some idiocy though, judge Doug Crosby gave 10-8 for Hendricks in round 2 and scored round 5 a 10-10 draw.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
I did not see that much of an improvement. I just think in the second round Lawler was too hesitant in pulling the trigger, which led to him losing a round that he had the ability to win. Hendricks has added layers to his striking with leg kicks, but other than that I could still see a Rory or a prime GSP picking him off from distance with jabs.

 

Yeah I'm not saying he's drastically better but he was pretty much just the left hand a couple of years ago. He was very limited. The left hand is lethal but it's all he had. There were never combinations, never really set the left up that well. It's amazing he had so much success with it really considering. But he's improving and that's all you can really ask of him. He uses his right more now, he knees more, kicks more, throws bunches of shots instead of one bomb at a time, and he's getting better at moving his head. From where his striking was a year or two ago, it's a pretty marked improvement IMO. He was in with another very good striker though so maybe it wasn't so evident. If the Hendricks of last night fought Koscheck back in 2012, I don't think it'd have been nearly as close. So that's improvement to me.

 

Both showed heart, and proved they have granite chins, but neither showed me that they could be Champion for a number of years. I think Hendricks is vulnerable as Champion, and whilst he will probably make a few title defenses, I think either Rory, Lombard or Woodly will beat him. 170lbs is wide open now GSP is gone/weathered.

 

There's truth to what you're saying and yeah, I wouldn't pick either Hendricks or Lawler to beat the prime GSP of 2007-2009 when he was a monster just double-legging people halfway across the cage. But I think that's a bit harsh on them. There isn't really anyone at 170lbs I'd have picked over him. Plus you can't really hold GSP's decline against them. They can only compete in the division as it stands today. And let's be honest, that was the most exciting and competitive UFC welterweight title fight we've seen in years. With GSP, as great as he was, you'd go into his fights knowing pretty much how they'd go and how they'd end. It was like watching a Rocky film. The film is called Rocky for fuck's sake. You know who's coming out on top. It was almost that level of predictability at times. As great as he was for the sport and as much as I like the Rocky films, a change of pace is good for a division as well. Sticking with the Rocky theme, last night was like if they'd stuck Ivan Drago in with Clubber Lang.

 

The whole division is up in the air and for me personally, it's quite refreshing. We've got a dominant champ at Heavyweight, 205, 145, 135, Womens 135 and 125. Hendricks might well go on to dominate 170 in GSP's absence for all we know, but if he doesn't, one or two 'hot potato' titles won't hurt. The 205 division was what built the UFC really, it was THE division from about 2002-2007. And the belt changed hands more often than Sunny in the ECW locker room back then. Never did any harm back then. I think it's good to have a couple of divisions where the title is up in the air. The dominant champs are great but not everyone will be a GSP, Anderson, Jones etc. They've set such a ridiculously high benchmark that I don't even think it's fair to hold other champions to it.

 

I don't see Rory, Lombard or Woodley beating Hendricks myself. Woodley has probably the best shot of the three IMO. Lombard is too inactive when he doesn't land the early bomb, and slows down to a crawl. Rory is hot and cold but I think he'd go into his shell after a few Hendricks haymakers. Woodley would be great for a round or two, then I think he'd fade and Hendricks would dominate him. Lombard would be interesting I suppose. With his defensive wrestling, power and Judo. I don't know. I didn't see anything last night that would make me confident to pick him over Hendricks really though.

 

I actually still think Condit is a pretty good threat to Hendricks. The first fight was fucking close and over five rounds I think Condit would do even better. He gets stronger as the fight goes on. Similar thing to Lawler though, I'd probably pick Hendricks' wrestling to tip the advantage to his side, but Condit's conditioning and aggression could make it very exciting again. First fight was tremendous as well. Five rounds would be even better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
No love for the Spencer/Garcia prelim? On most other shows they would've got a bonus.

 

Forgot about that. It was good but I thought Gastelum vs Story and Andrade vs Pennington were better. The second round of Spencer vs Garcia was insane but as a whole fight I thought the other two were better.

 

Speaking of awards;

 

Fight Of The Night: Hendricks vs Lawler

Performance Of The Night: OSP and Bermudez

 

Hopefully Gastelum, Story, Andrade, Pennington, Garcia and Spencer all got a bit extra in their paychecks as well. There were quite a few who really should get something extra from last night IMO.

 

Forgot Bermudez as well! He looked great. Hettes got battered. Looked like he was pointing to his rib after the stoppage which would make sense. The way he kept dropping to the canvas it was clear he was hurt. Bermudez should get a main card fight now. Six wins in a row, always exciting and if the lack of finishes was what was holding him back, this should fuck that off as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

170lbs being up in the air is not a bad thing. It is good to have a mix of dominant Champions, and vulnerable Champions.

 

Rory is someone who I think matches up well against Hendricks. He has a certain level of wrestling, and can pickpocket with jabs from the outside, which seems to be the blueprint to beat Hendricks. Lawler stood in front of Hendricks in the striking exchanges, and as GSP showed if a fighter has decent footwork he can give Hendricks fits (watch round 3 of GSP vs Hendricks)

 

I would pick Hendricks over Lombard, but it might be close, Lombard might not have the striking to deal with Hendricks, and the grappling game might be cancelled out. I am still not 100% sure where Woodly stands, it is a shame we did not get to see him fight Condit for longer.

 

There is always a rematch as well, and of Lawler could make a few adjustments and find his range early, then he does have the tools to beat Hendricks. The first fight was so good, the second fight might not be far off. There is no one leaping out above the rest at 170lbs to face Hendricks. It could very well be any of the names mentioned next

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...