UFC taking Hendricks out to pasture

He was quite the bulldog in his time but all those weight gains and weight drops catch up with you over time.

 

He's done as a top tier fighter. All that's left is a flabby journeyman in the middleweight division who enjoys his fast food too much. Fark im.

 

I don't mind up and comers building their name on past big names.

I personally don't rate Hendricks as high as some others but a fight like this is win - win. The old guy gets a chance at adding another big win to his resume, the new guy gets a chance at adding name value to his resume. Plus both men get a payday.

 

Thats the problem with MMA and it's why people have such dramatic falls from grace. Too often people describe it as Jack of all trades a master of none, it's so incorrect. At the top level (say top ten of the world) you're a master of all trades jack of none. Almost all top class strikers have a wrestling background to sprawl and keep the fight standing or they have a BJJ background to allow a then to ccompete on the mat. to keep at a high level they have to train so hard in multiple disciplines. Take Miocic, if he falls in love with his power, stops training his wrestling, he gets taken down and potentially loses his title. Take Werdum, he falls in love with his BJJ and stops training his striking he loses the fight in his feet Vs any decent HW (take note Maia). As soon as Liddell lost his title and stopped training as hard as he was he went on a horrific skid because so much of his success was down to his wrestling and BJJ which allowed him to defend takedowns effectively.

Once a fighter gets old and can't put the hours in or loses a touch of sharpness in either cardio, striking or grappling, they begin to lose an awful lot of fights. Or you get a fighter training the grappling and striking but without the conditioning work they gas after the first round.

Must be so hard staying on top of your game in this sport.

Although he's impossible to hate, on the flip side how did you score Bisping vs Hamill? The fight that created the most hated figure in UFC lol.

 

Yeah it does look as if they're setting him up for the slaughter.

 

In 3round fights especially, the way UFC is scores, so many fights can be legit scored either way.

Was watching Condit Vs Shields earlier. Condit busted him up every time he threw a punch, but Shields controlled the game on the mat.

By the end of the fight Shields looked like he's been in a war and Condit looked ready for round 1 again.

Obvs Shields took the UD no worries, but in Pride that could easily have gone the other way

 

Good fighter who gave it a go and did some big things. Not everyone is meant for long term success/dominance. Still accomplished far more than most. Good luck to him but i am not feeling a least big bad for him either.

 

I agree that they will keep around for at least a fight or 2,it used to be few losses in a row and you were done but they seem to make allowances for the bigger names like Arlovski who has lost 5 in a row and somehow still with them

 

Brilliant post, mate.