Originally Posted by Fedorlei Gomipierre  For the record, I agree that Hendricks deserves the title shot, I believe he's earned the title shot with some impressive victories and has done more than his contemporaries.....however, I just don't think he can be too upset here, as IMO he is an extremely unconvincing challenger to meet GSP.
I feel as though people are hopping onto the Hendricks bandwagon on account of the Fitch and Kampmann KTFOs and are blatantly ignoring when Hendricks looked painfully normal and less than contender ready in his subpar performances against Kos, Pierce and in his loss to Story. Johny's record says five straight, however he could've very easily dropped either or both of those SD wins and it feels as though he and alot of others have amnesia regarding them.
I don't have a problem with Hendricks himself so much, but I hear all the time about his power and how he's "a wrestler that can knock people out" and I think it is given too much credence. When you take a closer look at his record, he hasn't gone up against a great striker(I suppose you could argue Kampmann) and for me, has so many glaring holes in his overall game that I don't consider a former SF WW champion in Diaz to be such a glaring slight. I believe Hendricks has more than just a puncher's chance, but I think that GSP is far too superior in far too many aspects of MMA to make it a serious contest.
I suppose I'm disregarding Hendricks here, however I don't think GSP/Hendricks is a competative bout in comparison to Diaz/GSP. While Hendricks' covers alot of the distance to compensate for the reach he gives up, GSP's boxing and leg kicks are something I don't believe he'll even remotely have an answer to. Likewise, while Hendricks is a helluva wrestler, I don't know if he can stop the awesome GSP grappling attack and from there, have legitimate questions concerning his ability to defend against the GNP and submissions. Johny's got some crazy KO's on his record, but looking at his overall body of work, I'm simply disinterested in him going up against Georges.
I wish everyone would put a little more analysis into the Pierce and Kos fights before decrying this miscarriage of justice. I hear these comparisons to Anderson/Weidman, however would argue that GSP has beaten a more credible number of top tier WW contenders than Anderson has(several lower level challengers in Lutter, Leites, Cote etc) although FTR, I don't really have much issue with the Anderson/Weidman situation, as again, I believe that Weidman will eventually get his shot.
As I've said before, I see Diaz to GSP as what Sonnen 1 was to Anderson. Hendricks is the contender, but GSP's got issues with Diaz and wants to fight him and I think for all of his dominance, has a right to ask for that fight. I don't believe for a second(and think it would be foolhardy too) that GSP is ducking Johny and think to appease him, Hendricks should be given either the time off to wait for GSP to finish up with Diaz or fight Nate Marquardt for the SFWW title and then get the big money unification bout with GSP, where his credibility will be more established.
I'll get heat for this, but that's my stance. |