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Fox Sports: "Zach Arnold's Fight Opinion site is one of the best spots on the Web for thought-provoking MMA pieces."

« | Home | »

So, about that proposed Fedor vs. Dan Henderson fight…

By Zach Arnold | May 5, 2011

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As Jonathan Snowden reported the other day, July 30th at Hoffman Estates, Illinois we will see these two men fight under the Strikeforce banner at a reported catch-weight of 220 pounds. MMA Supremacy points out the obvious, which is that Zuffa will be co-promoting an MMA event with M-1. I kid you not. That ought to be fascinating., especially if Fedor wins and Zuffa wants to roll Fedor over to the UFC.

As for the fight itself…

Stamina

Fedor’s gas tank is not what it used to be and he took a beating from Antonio Silva last February. The body can only take so much wear and tear. We know Dan Henderson can hang for three or five rounds (ask Rampage about that). If Henderson can get this fight to the ground, he can quickly sap out Fedor’s strength. Advantage: Henderson.

Speed & Power

I think it’s a wash for speed. Fedor has better speed standing up and he’ll be fighting a guy of comparable size, which bodes well for him. Henderson has certain punches he aims to deliver and Fedor’s great at countering. On the ground, can Fedor sweep Henderson or will he get stuck if Dan gets top position on him? Dan has power on the mat and he has lots of power standing up (ask Wanderlei). Dan has the power advantage and I think it gives him a better shot of winning this fight than most online seem to be giving him.

(Go to various forums and you’ll see Fedor being touted as the ‘overwhelming’ favorite.)

Recent experience

Look at the level of competition each man has fought recently.

Fedor: Tim Sylvia (W), Andrei Arlovski (W), Brett Rogers (W), Fabricio Werdum (L), Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva (L). Five fights in the last three years and his fight against Rogers was in the Chicago area.

Henderson: Rich Franklin (W), Michael Bisping (W), Jake Shields (L), Renato Babalu (W), Feijao (W). Five fights in the last 2 1/2 years.

No question that moment is on Dan’s side and I’d say that Dan has faced a slightly higher level of competition. He ran into a locomotive when he faced Anderson Silva (nobody’s beating him) and his title match against Rampage was a really tough battle.

Current skill

If there’s anything Fedor’s recent fights has taught us, it’s that he’s incredibly weak against BJJ players. He won’t have to worry about it in this fight, but he should worry about getting pounded hard and pushed against the cage. Look what Brett Rogers did to Fedor and how much trouble he put him in.

If this stays a stand-up war, I see Fedor clipping Dan and putting him down. If this goes to the ground, Fedor’s in for a rough five rounds (unless a doctor stops the fight). He could very easily get cut in the face here.

Addendum: Yes, I know about his fights with Nogueira. I don’t want anyone to act as if I’m a newbie or anything. Take note that I said “recent fights.”

Early thoughts

I think it’s a 55/45 fight in favor of Fedor, but I wouldn’t be overly confident going in as a 55% favorite. Dan presents lots of challenges and the Fedor fear factor is long gone. If I had to make an early prediction, I’d take Dan by decision (three rounds of punishing ground ‘n pound).

My initial assessment of this fight is probably different than everyone else’s, so let’s hear it. Break down this fight in the categories that I used here and make a case as to why which guy will win.

Topics: M-1, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 51 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

51 Responses to “So, about that proposed Fedor vs. Dan Henderson fight…”

  1. Nepal says:

    Stamina. Hard to call really. We know Dan has stamina. We have seen Fedor breathing hard. If I had to make a call on it, I would say Dan’s gas tank would be better.

    Speed. Not remotely close. Fedor is much much much faster than Dan. Both with his foot work and his hands. On the ground the speed at which Fedor can nail a sub is amazing…. especially for a man of his size.

    Power. Probably equal but Fedor’s power is released in way more ways. Dan really only has that big right hand. Fedor has punches in combinations, all with power. Big advantage Fedor.

    Experience, even recent experience. Really this is a wash, both will have zero issues with experience.

    Current skill is not too different from non-current skill I think. Fedor is simply way more skilled. Punching, offensive BJJ, takedowns (despite Hendo’s pedigree) all are in Fedor’s favour. Maybe Fedor isn’t a fast as a few years ago but Dan is likely not as fast either.

    ” he’s incredibly weak against BJJ players” This statement is beyond preposterous. Werdum is one of the best in the world in BJJ, Silva weighed 60 pounds more than Fedor. We have seen Fedor with incredible BJJ dexterity over the years. Look at Fedor vs. Nog 1. Big Nog’s jitz was legendary at the time and he couldn’t touch Fedor.

    It’s true that Roger’s made Fedor look human on the ground, actually Mark Hunt did too. Dan’s ground game is not great really. We saw he couldn’t get off his back vs Shieds, he has great great sub defense even tho he was subbed by the Nog brothers back in PRIDE. He doesn’t threaten with subs.

    Overall, Fedor at -280 is a good bet. It’s much lower due to his past 2 loses but Hendo doesn’t bring that level of jitz nor 290 pounds. I will likely put a little bit of money on Fedor.

    • Zach Arnold says:

      Speed. Not remotely close. Fedor is much much much faster than Dan. Both with his foot work and his hands. On the ground the speed at which Fedor can nail a sub is amazing…. especially for a man of his size.

      Does he possess that same speed, even the speed he had from three years ago?

      Current skill is not too different from non-current skill I think. Fedor is simply way more skilled. Punching, offensive BJJ, takedowns (despite Hendo’s pedigree) all are in Fedor’s favour. Maybe Fedor isn’t a fast as a few years ago but Dan is likely not as fast either.

      ” he’s incredibly weak against BJJ players” This statement is beyond preposterous. Werdum is one of the best in the world in BJJ, Silva weighed 60 pounds more than Fedor. We have seen Fedor with incredible BJJ dexterity over the years. Look at Fedor vs. Nog 1. Big Nog’s jitz was legendary at the time and he couldn’t touch Fedor.

      The level of BJJ today versus 8-10 years in MMA as far as effective BJJ is not even close. That’s why I said recently he’s having trouble dealing with those types of fighters. The move Werdum used to finish him off was relatively basic in nature and Fedor walked right into it.

      We saw he couldn’t get off his back vs Shields, he has great great sub defense even tho he was subbed by the Nog brothers back in PRIDE. He doesn’t threaten with subs.

      Shields is scary enough on the ground that GSP didn’t want to go there at all. Everyone saw what Jake did to Dan. It was as impressive of a performance as you could see.

    • angel says:

      Look, this is not the first time Fedor is going to face a very good wrestler, with punching power and powerfull on the ground. (Coleman- Randleman), his been with some very good punchers (Arlovsky-Rogers), stamina; remember that Bigfoot Silva did not submit ore knockedout Fedor, it was stopped by the doctor, Fedor did not gas out, he got in trouble in the ground, remenber Fedor took Silva to the ground and he made a mistake, he went for a kimura and he got turned, the strategy there was ground and pound, and he got thecnical with a brazillian on the ground “Big Mistake”, this is actually going to make him better. Stamina!!! remember Dan is 40, Fedor is 34, look his going down in weigth to fight a smaller fighter, his used to trowing bombs to much bigger guys than him, and ussualy when somebody decides to throw with him, guess who goes to the ground, not him. So there you go, if they decide to trow, believe me Henderson is going to be Knocked Out BIGTIME!

  2. Fighing Onion says:

    I think it’s a great matchup. I hope it doesnt finish in the first round, though that might be spectacular. Henderson would be crazy to keep the fight on the feet but it wouldn’t surprise me if he tried that.

  3. Wolverine says:

    five rounds? It won’t be for Hendo’s title, so I guess it’s three rounds.

    Ed. — Good catch. Thank you.

  4. Safari_Punch says:

    Where do you get that Fedor’s gas tank isn’t what it once was? Based on what?

    Fedor’s weak against BJJ guys? One guy outweighed him by 50-55 pounds and couldn’t finish him with submission attempts. It was more using his weight on Fedor than anything. The other guy (Werdum) was a case for Fedor going for a strike instead of getting out of the second sub attempt. It’s not the first time Fedor has tempted fate by disregarding a BJJ fighters strengths (Fedor/Nog 1).I don’t think this implies BJJ is Fedor’s krytonite. These guys just happen to have BJJ as a skill set as do the majority of fighters.

    As for standup, Fedor is working on sharpening his stand up – he was with Ernesto Hoost recently – which looked like slop against Big Foot. Whether is heart is in fighting anymore is another thing altogether. Henderson’s striking isn’t what it was against Wanderlei when his left is what KO’d Silva, not his right, for a change. However, I think Hendo does a better job of setting up his right with his little inside kick then he use to in his PRIDE days.

    I don’t know which Fedor is going to show up. Dan has the momentum going in, but has shown that he cannot maintain streaks for very long when he is truly challenged.

    Something me sees this fight going the direction of Fedor/Lindland with Fedor subbing Dan, which has been his Achilles heel.

    Fedor needs to make a statement in this fight or it may be time to retire.

    • Zach Arnold says:

      As I commented elsewhere here, Fedor’s ground defense needs to keep up with the evolution of BJJ that we’re seeing now in MMA and right now I’m skeptical that he’s kept up.

      Stand up, to me, was not the problem for him coming out of the Werdum & Bigfoot fights.

  5. 45 Huddle says:

    1) Zuffa & M-1 co-promoting? Hell has frozen over.

    2) Heavyweight or Catchweight? Doesn’t matter. It shows that Fedor Emelianenko still doesn’t get it. He is too small for Heavyweight and should be taking the necessary stepsto get his weight down to compete at a weight class that he wouldbe fighting guys closer in size to himself.

    3) Fighting a blown up Middleweight who about a year ago lost to a Welterweight. Fedor is really testing himself now. This isn’t 2002 anymore. In the UFC, Henderson would still be a Middleweight.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      As for my prediction. It’s a tough one to call. Too many variables. But if I had to pick it would be Henderson by KO.

      Fedor hasn’t looked good in a long time. He wasn’t looking good against Arlovski before he got that one punch in. He made it way too close against a journeyman in Rogers.

      And in his 2 losses he has looked slow, fat, and old. So despite the fact that he is going to be bigger in this fight, I believe he just can’t get back his old glory ever again. The 2002 to 2005 Fedor is gone. We just don’t know when he left because his level of competition couldn’t gauge it properly.

      • Steve4192 says:

        “He wasn’t looking good against Arlovski before he got that one punch in”

        I thought he looked great in that fight. His head movement was spectacular. Arlovski barely touched him. The vast majority of his punches were being slipped. The fact that Fedor’s tissue-paper thin skin wasn’t even marked up speaks volumes about how little Arlovski landed in that fight.

    • Steve4192 says:

      Regarding point #2, Hendo has no interest in fighting at a catch-weight. He wants to fight Fedor at his best, and does not want to risk Fedor having a difficult weight cut showing up drained.

      Regarding point #3, Hendo has always been better at 205 than he is at 185. He would have made the move up to 205 regardless of what promotion he fought under. The guy is getting older and has always hated cutting weight. 205 is where he fights best, so that is where he belongs, even if it means he is at a huge size disadvantage.

      • 45 Huddle says:

        He might enjoy fighting at Light Heavyweight more, but the top level guys of that weight class are all guys who would put a hurting on him. At Middleweight, he could at last work his way up towards another title shot.

        Henderson could beat the winner of Stann/Santiago, Sonnen, Okami, Maia, W.Silva, Bisping, or Belfort. He has already beaten the last 3 listed.

        Henderson would get beat by Jones, Machida, Rua, Davis, Nogueira, Bader, Rampage, Evans, & Griffin. He has already lost to Rampage and Nogueira.

        • The Gaijin says:

          So basically:

          The 185 weight class is really thin and weak, the 205 weight class is deep. So Hendo is a 185 fighter b/c he could theoretically do better there – regardless of the fact that he can’t make weight and fight well there?

          He can’t make the cut anymore without being squeezed dry and now he fights at 205. To me that sounds like he’s a 205 fighter. And frankly your evaluation of his prospects at 205 is incredibly biased…you’re just using your opinion to support your opinion.

  6. Chuck says:

    This should be a good fight. I take Henderson by either late round stoppage or decision. We all know Fedor will just get into a fire-fight with Hendo standing and Hendo will do nothing but that bob and weave over-hand right and he will probably catch Fedor with it at some point.

    If it goes to the ground? Yeah Henderson will probably have the slight advantage. But can he stay on top of Fedor raining down punches like Silva did? That is the question here. I have no doubt that Henderson will have some succes on top against Fedor (wrestling background) but because of the smaller size Fedor may be able to hip out of sweep Henderson.

  7. coleman says:

    Henderson is going to KO Fedor.

    Henderson has better power striking and probably cleaner technique at this point. Fedor has a speed advantage striking but when he throws those fast strikes he leaves himself completely open for a BRH.

    Henderson has an advantage in the clinch and wrestling and has outwrestled more powerful and skilled guys than Fedor. I would give Henderson the advantage with his jiu-jitsu skills as well, since Hendo has a legit BJJ coach and trains in a real camp.

    I can’t really see any avenue for victory since Hendo has an iron jaw. I highly doubt Fedor would be able to submit Hendo.

  8. cutch says:

    This is a lose-lose fight for Fedor, if he wins, so what Henderson’s a Middleweight and if he loses he’s finished.

    This will be the first time that Fedor has fought with elbows in many years, the last two times he was in a cage did’nt do him many favours.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      Great point. It is lose lose.

      I also think it really hurts his legacy if he loses this fight.

  9. sam says:

    Fedor will win this fight.

    He has great ground…better than henderson, IMO. Henderson has been submitted repeatedly on the ground, unlike Fedor.

  10. Jonathan says:

    I do not think that this will go Hendo’s way. I look for Fedor to win by either sub or decision, maybe, MAYBE a tko from unanswered strikes.

    I guess that puts me in the minority, but I am fine with that.

  11. edub says:

    Fedor by emphatic KO early. I think he rocks him Anderson style, and when Hendo tries to recover he’ll eat some huge shots on the ground or get subbed.

    Personally, I don’t see Dan having much of a chance in this fight.

  12. bundt says:

    It seems like Fedor’s been trying to get into brawls/wild exchanges with guys to put them down for the past few years in every fight. I guess it depends on how much damage Fedor will be able to do with his (probably) more accurate punches before before dan gets him with a big combo.

  13. David m says:

    I wonder how Fedor would even look/fight without his vodka gut. When igor v went down to 205 I don’t remember if he had any more success. The truth is, once a fighter starts his decline, it is hard to overcome the lack of reflexes and speed and chin. Henderson seems to have aged better than Fedor, but then again, he isn’t fighting dudes that have 50 pounds on him.

  14. Zack says:

    Igor’s drop to 205 was definitely not a success.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      Much like Fedor, Igor Vovchanchin ran into issues at Heavyweight before trying to fight smaller guys. The sport really did pass him bye. He was great for his time but the bigger skilled guys were just too much for him. Even in his wins against guys like Mark Kerr, it was because Kerr gassed, not because Igor was doing so great. Once he ran into Kerr with some conditioning (Coleman in 2000), it was all over. Telligman beating him was a huge wake-up call.

      • Zack says:

        LOL @ this. If you think Coleman vs Igor was representative of Igor going up against a Kerr with conditioning, you’re nuts.

        Igor had a war with Goodridge, went 15 mins with Sakuraba, then got Coleman. Coleman had an easy go with Shoji, then a non-fight with Fujita. He was fresh going into the Igor fight. I’ve always been super disappointed they never did a rematch.

        Also, Tra was Igors 8th fight or something in a year span. Burnout had obviously caught up. There was a huge strech where Igor fought on every single Pride card.

        And by the time Igor went down to 205, he was already at the very end of his career. He only had a handful of fights there before retiring.

  15. PL Allie says:

    PTI just reported that Gus Johnson resign from CBS today.

    • edub says:

      Wowzerz

      • 45 Huddle says:

        Sometimes these things happen….

        • Mr. Roadblock says:

          I like him covering boxing and football.

          I don’t see why everyone kills him so bad on MMA. Mauro and Frank Shamrock kill the broadcasts each time, there’s not much Gus can do to fix things.

        • 45 Huddle says:

          They are all bad. I like Johnson in his other announcing jobs. I think he does a bad job at MMA.

          Mauro is so over the top that it hurts to listen to him.

          Frank Shamrock suffers from too big of an ego. It gets in the way of good announcing. Frank Mir and Frank Trigg also suffer from this. Wait a second. They are all named Frank. Must be the name. Oh wait…. Tito Ortiz is also in that group….

    • The Gaijin says:

      Johnson was effin’ horrid at MMA announcing, knew absolutely nothing about the sport nor did he seem interested in doing much homework to brush up. And looked like a straight up 3rd rate drag queen on tv.

      From an mma perspective he will not be missed.

  16. EJ says:

    I personally don’t care for this fight, Fedor fighting another MW is pretty laughable but after losing 2 straight and being destroyed in his last one this is probably the only marketable fight he has left. As far as who wins it all comes down to which Hendo shows up and with what strategy, if Hendo decides to wrestle and not just throw his right hand he has a great change to win. If he just goes out and wants to slug it out he’ll gas get worn down and submitted.

    Either way win or lose Fedor ain’t coming to the UFC, this co-promotion thing will never fly with the UFC and is only happening because of SF and their weird contracts. Besides the obvious Showtime is the big reason why Fedor is even fighting for Zuffa since they are the ones paying his salary and the UFC isn’t going to pay 1.5 million dollars for a guy who’s washed up.

  17. Mr. Roadblock says:

    I would be very surprised if Fedor wins this fight.

    The bulk of Fedor’s wins were against slow footed heavyweights where he had a considerable speed advantage.

    I think Fedor has a puncher’s chance here. If he lands a big shot he can win. I think he’ll have trouble getting to Hendo on the feet though. On the ground Hendo should have an enormous advantage due to his grappling.

  18. Nepal says:

    Amazing amount of Hendo-love on this site. Come on guys, Fedor just got beat by an all time great BJJ guy and a skilled guy with a 60 pound weight advantage. Hendo lost to a welterweight.

    The odds are still -275 on Fedor. I agree. Fedor by how ever he wants.

    • Mr. Roadblock says:

      Nepal, I’m glad there are guys like you out there to push the odds heavily in Fedor’s favor.

      Without getting into a huge flame war let’s take a reasonable look at Fedor’s fights, strengths and weaknesses.

      Fedor has a great chin and heavy hands. He’s deadly when he has a speed advantage over his opponent.

      Guys that are moderately quick on their feet have given him fits. CroCop and Arlovski both had him in trouble standing. Randleman almost put him in a wheelchair. Fedor won those fights. But it showed a vulnerablity in him.

      Brett Rogers tossed Fedor around like a ragdoll on the ground. Rogers wasn’t able to capitalize because he has a limited skill set. Hendo isn’t nearly as big or strong as Rogers. But his skill plus his strength are going to give him an even bigger advantage on the ground than Rogers has.

      Fedor has good submissions but we’ve pretty much only seen him pull them off against guys with terrible sub defense.

      Hendo is good at defending subs and I believe if/when they hit the mat Hendo will end up in a dominant position. Though I could be wrong about that.

      I have real questions about Fedor’s mental makeup. Fans try to say it is his ‘management’ that’s a pain in the butt. That ducks opponents, that refused to go to UFC to fight the best. Well who is it that doesn’t want to go to 205? I think Fedor is being put into this fight because his handlers want to squeeze the money teat at least one more time.

      I see them standing, pawing at each other then tossing big bombs and Hendo getting the better of it. Should be a fun fight and I’m looking forward to it. Especially if there are long odds on Hendo!

      • edub says:

        Just a few rebuttals for you:

        “Guys that are moderately quick on their feet have given him fits. CroCop and Arlovski both had him in trouble standing. Randleman almost put him in a wheelchair. Fedor won those fights. But it showed a vulnerablity in him.”

        CroCop never had Fedor in trouble. He marked up his face, but was thoroughly dominated on the feet for the bigger chunks of the fight. Randleman got a big slam, that placed him directly into a fight ending submission. Arlovsi “major success” (I know you didn’t say that, but that’s the general thought) against Fedor lasted for a couple of minutes.

        “Brett Rogers tossed Fedor around like a ragdoll on the ground.”

        No he didn’t. Fedor won the majority of the grappling in their fight, with Brett Rogers gaining superiority for only small amounts of time.

        “Well who is it that doesn’t want to go to 205?”

        That would seemingly be both of the them. There are multiple Dan Henderson interviews where he states he wanted the fight at HW.

        -Dan Henderson does not like to stand with people that have a big striking advantage over him. He stood with Feijao because he knew the best part of his game was the clinch (mainly knees), and I don’t think he’s afraid to clinch with anybody. He took Rich Franklin, Vitor Belfort, and Anderson Silva down as soon as he could when fighting them.

        My pick is somewhat similar to yours except I believe the pawing will be by Hendo, and Fedor will catch him with one of his crazy combos early. Then Fedor gets on top and grabs an arm before the first round is done. That or pounds him out on the mat. Hendo has taken some big shots before, but never from someone who hits as hard or as quick as Fedor (besides Anderson). If Rich Franklin can be on the verge of stopping him at one point, I think Fedor will finish the job.

        • Safari_Punch says:

          Why do people say Arlovski gave Fedor trouble when the only clean strike AA landed on Fedor was a push kick.

          Do any of you really watch the fights?

          The lack of insight is mind boggling.

      • Nepal says:

        Mr. Roadblock,

        I also don’t want to get into a huge flame war, especially with somebody like Fedor as the subject….. however you said “let’s take a reasonable look at Fedor’s fights, strengths and weaknesses”. Edub provided some accurate rebuttles to your “reasonable” comments so I won’t repeat them.

        For me, the bottom line is although Hendo has great power, Fedor is a much much better and functional MMA striker than Hendo and should be able to dominate on the feet. Although Hendo has the wrestling pedigree, he hasn’t shown that he can take people down with as well as Fedor can.

        Hendo is useless from the bottom (slight exageration). From the top, I’ll bet Fedor sweeps him.

        This is the only fight possible since all the SF heavies are busy in the tournament. I think it’s a safe fight for Fedor, yes if he loses, big negative for his future, if he wins, big deal but it’s safe because he can’t lose lol.

      • The Gaijin says:

        “Without getting into a huge flame war let’s take a reasonable look at Fedor’s fights, strengths and weaknesses.”

        HAHA…still waiting.

        With statements like “Rogers ragdolled him” and “AA and Cro Cop had him in trouble standing” it’s pretty clear you’re dealing with someone that has an utterly biased view of the guy that they’ve either blatantly misrepresented the fights or have really tried to convince themselves these things.

        • Isaiah says:

          I find it best to just avoid the subject of Fedor altogether. It’s one issue that people simply cannot discuss productively.

        • The Gaijin says:

          Excellent point. I feel like it will be retreads of some dreadful discussions.

          Count me out.

        • Mr. Roadblock says:

          I just don’t understand this worship of Fedor. He’s just a guy. He has strengths and weaknesses. But some fans want to act like he’s invisible or part man part machine. I guess it’s the same people that read Superman comic books and have some odd desire to have a hero.

          Why don’t you guys go rewatch the fights. Brett Rogers simply tosses Fedor off of him on the ground like a grown man would a child.

          Cro Cop pushed Fedor around the ring until the doctors stopped the fight to check on Fedor’s cut and gave him a time out. Arlovski was landing on Fedor at will until he tried that stupid knee.

          Fedor fought guys that were very good fights for him for most of his career. Hendo is not one of his tailor made opponents.

        • edub says:

          Roadblock: I am far from one of his biggest supporters, and I don’t see him as a super hero (although Superman is the shit). I still don’t see where your getting those opinions, but it’s not that important to me to argue it. Nor is it that important to figure out how Dan Henderson beats up Babalu (a washed up version at that), and a guy who was knocked out by Mike Kyle, and now suddenly he will beat up Fedor. I just don’t care enough.

          All I will do is say remember this article, and when Fedor dominates Henderson I won’t have to say I told you so.

  19. The Gaijin says:

    For everyone s#itting on the fight and “45’ing” the conversation into how overrated Fedor is yet again…

    Who would you have him fight?

    – UFC won’t let him fight on their cards b/c of the co-promotion, so you’re not going to get him against a UFC HW.

    – Any worthwhile SF heavyweight is still involved in the HWGP. Do you want him to fight AA again? Lavar Johnson? Their best prospect in Cormier? So it’s worthless to look for a HW fight.

    Hendo is still one of their biggest names and the LHW champion, not a MW, and it’s the most compelling fight they have available. I know it’s the easy diss but Hendo is a 205lb fighter whether he’s made 185 before or not(and frankly he said it’s too much of a drain to make 185 now)…not to mention he’s won two belts at 205 and some of his “biggest wins” are at 205 (Wanderlei, Franklin, Vitor, Babalu), so I’m not sure why this seems to be the easy go-to argument.

    Haters gonna hate.

    • Mr. Roadblock says:

      I’m excited to see him fight Hendo. In a lot of ways this is us getting to see the Randy fight. But Hendo has a better shot of winning than Randy did.

  20. Zheroen says:

    http://i44.tinypic.com/14l4hh5.jpg

    9 of 21 strikes landed by Arlovski during the fight (vs. Fedor’s 5 of 12) is landing at will? Give me a fucking break. You think Fedor’s overrated, I get that, but have some integrity and don’t resort to gross misrepresentation of what actually happened during the fight.

    • Mr. Roadblock says:

      Dude, they fought for what 2 minutes? I thought he landed more than 9 punches. Maybe I’m wrong. Fedor was on the back peddle until he landed the big shot.

      But you know what, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I don’t steadily suck Fedor’s pecker like you Fedor-loving buttplugs. Again my apologies.

      • Chuck says:

        Nine out of 21 sounds pretty accurate. Watch the fight again (youtube), Fedor slipped most of those shots. Arlovski was winning the round until the KO, but no way was he “utterly dominating” Fedor. Fedor just went overly defensive. To a fault, but still.

        Nice comment at the end. Stay classy buddy.

      • The Gaijin says:

        So calling you out on what amounts to a gross misrepresentations, complete fabrication or just a plain ignorant interpretation is steadily sucking Fedor’s pecker?

        Yeah, people are worshippers who think a fighter is superman for taking issue with some straight up astroturf propaganda style commenting? Go back under your bridge Baghdad Bob.

      • Zheroen says:

        u mad

  21. Progress says:

    “If Henderson can get this fight to the ground, he can quickly sap out Fedor’s strength. Advantage: Henderson.”

    If Fedor can knock Henderson out, he can quickly win the fight. Advantage: Fedor.

    Yeah, his analysis was that fucking bad.

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