Preview And Predictions: UFC Fight Night – Hendricks vs. Wonderboy

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Card subject to change.

That’s a phrase that we have to hear only too often in MMA. And it was again the case this week as UFC 196 was devastated by injuries so much that it became UFC Fight Night 82 and the scheduled UFC 197 Superfight between Conor McGregor and Rafael Dos Anjos was moved back a number to now become the new UFC 196.

Initially, the card which takes place in Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena, was due to be headlined by the heavyweight championship rematch between Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez but that fight was annexed by a injury to Velasquez just two weeks out. Then, the UFC drafted in Stipe Miocic to face Werdum but a day later Werdum pulled out through injury himself and the fight was scrapped altogether.

Because of that, the card was moved off of American pay-per-view and onto cable television and will now be headlined by the possible welterweight number one contender fight between current #2 ranked UFC welterweight Johny Hendricks and exciting up-and-comer Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson.

Got that? OK!

On the face of it it’s obviously a big deterioration in quality of headliner but it’s still a very good fight between men at very different stages of their respective careers.

A former collegiate wrestling stand-out, Johny Hendricks excelled immediately as a mixed martial artist and made it to the UFC less than two years after he debuted. There, he again quickly rose through the ranks and won nine of his first ten Octagon outings to earn himself a welterweight title shot against Georges  St-Pierre.

Unfortunately for Hendricks, he lost a controversial decision in that fight but he quickly rebounded into another title shot because of GSP’s semi-retirement from that sport. This time Hendricks didn’t pass the opportunity up and won the belt in another close decision against Robbie Lawler. A series of injuries followed that before a return to action saw him lose yet another close decision, as well as his belt, to the aforementioned Lawler in late 2014. Since then Hendricks has only fought once, beating Matt Brown, while another scheduled fight with Tyron Woodley fell through when ‘Bigg Rigg’ fell ill during the weight cut.

Although Thompson has yet to reach the levels of Hendricks in his mixed martial arts career, he has put together a very impressive résumé to kick things off. Entering MMA as a world renowned karate and kickboxing champion in 2010 ‘Wonderboy’ got right to work inside the cage by beating his first six opponents on the spin. The last of those, against Dan Stittgen, was the first of Thompson’s now seven fights in the UFC.

In those seven bouts, Thompson lost only once to Matt Brown but bounced back well from that with five wins in a row the most recent of which saw him brutally knock out veteran wrestler Jake Ellenberger in July.

 And that experience against a wrestler will be put to good use on Saturday night as he takes on a 4-time All-American in Johny Hendricks.

Hendricks, though, isn’t just a wrestler. Yes, he has a very good double and single leg and, yes, he’ll grind you out against the fence but he is my no means one-dimensional. Hendricks is a fantastic fighter on the inside and has shown a willingness to happily trade blows from the pocket even against good strikers.His hand fighting and defence in close is top-notch and with his exocet of a straight left hand Hendricks can end the fight in one second.

Ending the fight in one second is also something Wonderboy knows plenty about.

As strikers go, there aren’t many better than him in MMA today. Although he has extremely good hands it’s the kicks of Thompson that make him so dangerous. His blistering straight body and head attacks along with question mark and spinning wheel kicks from constantly switching stances make Wonderboy not only hard to defend but hard to read too.

For someone who has concentrated so much on striking, grappling is obviously going to be his weaker link. Against Matt Brown, Thompson was thoroughly dominated in the clinch and on the floor but he has made significant improvements in those areas, along with his general cage awareness, against increasingly tough opposition since.

The question is, will it be enough?

In a fight like this there isn’t too much guesswork involved as to how both men will want it will play out.

We all know Hendricks will be trying to strike only long enough to use his wrestling while Thompson will be trying to keep him at range to unleash his strikes.

Look for Hendricks to back his opponent up early by rushing to the inside, landing strikes in close and getting a hold of him. From there he’ll want to stick him to the fence, put him on the ground, control, strike and repeat.

Wonderboy will be trying to stop that at all costs. Instead, he’ll want to move laterally around the cage while using his greater length and stance switches to hit Hendricks at a range where he can’t be countered or taken down.

Whoever succeeds at making it a fight fought in their area will win, and win easily.

In all likelihood, both men will probably have their moments.

For Wonderboy this is undoubtedly the biggest wrestling test of his career and he’ll need to show all of his improvements to pull off the win and establish himself as a top welterweight.

But on the other side of it, this is also arguably the biggest striking challenge of Hendricks’ career despite the level of competition he has faced. If he fails that challenge, even for brief periods of the 5-round fight, because of how dangerous Thompson is, it could be a very bad night for the former champion.

Miscellaneous Ramblings

With the original main event gone up in smoke there really isn’t a great support act for the stand-in main event despite a couple of interesting fight.

The co-main event for one will be worth watching for the simple fact that Jared Rosholt is currently on a 3-fight win streak in a heavyweight division where that practically makes you an automatic contender. Opposite him on Saturday will be veteran Roy ‘Big Country’ Nelson so expect plenty of bungalows thrown and even more wrestling.

After that you’ve a couple of nice fights in Ovince St-Preux vs. Rafael Feijão, Joe Benavidez vs. Zach Makovsky, Ray Borg vs. Justin Scoggins and CM Punk’s possible opponent Mickey Gall vs. Mike Jackson but Irish fans will be most interested in the very first bout of the evening as Alex White takes on SBG Ireland’s Artem Lobov.

Looking at both men’s games this one should be an absolute cracker of an opener. As we know Lobov is a head-seeking southpaw who throws down from the very start of all his fights and as luck would have it so is White!

Expect bombs here early and expect bombs here often with someone hitting the deck inside the first round.

FULL FIGHT PICKS

Main Card
Johny Hendricks vs. Stephen Thompson – Wonderboy headkick KO
Roy Nelson vs. Jared Rosholt – Rosholt decision
Ovince Saint Preux vs. Rafael Cavalcante – OSP should win easily
Joseph Benavidez vs. Zach Makovsky – Great fight. Close but I’ll take JoBe
Misha Cirkunov vs. Alex Nicholson – Cirkunov
Mike Pyle vs. Sean Spencer – Spencer

Preliminary Card
Josh Burkman vs. K.J. Noons – Burkman
Derrick Lewis vs. Damian Grabowski – Lewis
Ray Borg vs. Justin Scoggins – Borg (great fight)
Noad Lahat vs. Diego Rivas – Lahat

Preliminary Card
Mickey Gall vs. Mike Jackson – Gall
Artem Lobov vs. Alex White – Lobov

BET OF THE WEEK

This week I’m going with an 11/2 accumulator of Lobov, Spencer, Lahat and Burkman.

START TIMES

Early Prelims – 12am on UFC Fight Pass

Prelims – 1am on BT Sport 2

Main Card – 3am on BT Sport 2