Hendo speaks on Silva at UFC 101

tru dat

Thats not true. If he stands on the outside and kickboxes he'll lose. If he gets inside as they would say in boxing, and fights, and exploits his superior chin and power, he has a very good chance.

It's not a computer game, it doesn't work like that. Do you think Silva let him take him down in the first fight? Taking somebody down and being able to stop a takedown is a skillset thing, not a tactics thing. Hendo's decision to fight the wrong fight is a tactical error of judgement that is easy to fix, in contrast with Silva, who will never in a million years be able to outwrestle Dan Henderson, it just isn't happening.

 

Henderson looked gassed against Franklin. Given that he's close to 40 its not a bad call to say hes just slowing down a lot, but really, I think he just sees guys like Franklin and Bisping as a lower caliber of fighter, and after all he's done, its hard for him to get motivated for them. Thats why I was nervous about a Franklin rematch; I think he'd probably lose it.

The Palhares match, even though hes obviously a totally different style, was a pretty good warm up match for a Silva rematch; he was a dangerous guy who made Dan fight a smart fight and realize he can't just overwhelm everyone all the time now, especially at his age.

Anyway, who says Hendo can't win a gruelling attritional fight, he has a better style for it than Silva, if he focuses on wrestling. And its a style that ages well, Couture is using it aged 70.

This is another glaring error that most people make looking at these two imo; Silva technically submitted Dan of course, but nobody would ever claim he could do it like one of the Nogs or in a grappling match. Silva subbed someone who was badly hurt from strikes. Its not the same thing. Silvas groundgame really is about as overrated as it gets. It is in mma; I've never heard any grappling peole say Silva is some sort of wizard on the ground.

Silva presents zero threat to Hendo on the ground imo. He can stall well though and has a decent guard. Not offensive against a guy with Hendos posture strength though.

So overall, I think Hendo has the perfect style to beat him; takes his clinch game away completely, can fight in close standing and should dominate the ground. And also I think, while one of the best ever, SIlva isn;t quite as good as people think he is, and Hendo is better, again despite being an accepted atg. I'm also giving Henderson a pass on some of his recent performances which were not up to his prime standard. Maybe he was lacking motivation and carrying injuries and stuff, but theres a chance I'm being an overoptimistic fan I guess.

ps, prime Hendo beats Silva 10 out of 10 in a ring :good