Fortunes changed for five at UFC 197

A big weekend of fights with champion and former championship fighters was largely overshadowed by the daily Conor McGregor story, where two sides tell stories about why a fight that could break all revenue records isn’t taking place for reasons that nobody can make any sense out of. But there were a lot of interesting themes inside the cage walls, regarding size, ring rust, and fleeting careers. The surprise of the weekend took place on Friday night at the Bellator show when former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson, who from a fighter quality standpoint was the biggest free agent signed by the company during the Scott Coker era, debuted . Henderson then looked completely out of his league for five rounds when he challenged company welterweight champion Andrey Koreshkov. From the weigh-ins, the potential problem was staring you right in the face. Henderson looked too small. For all the talk of Henderson being a huge lightweight, that may have been overblown because of his fights with Frankie Edgar, who was such a small lightweight. Henderson moved up to welterweight in the UFC against Brandon Thatch, and that size difference looked even more ridiculous. But perhaps the worst thing for Henderson happened. After some early trouble caused by the size difference, he was able to get Thatch on the ground, where he had a massive skill edge, and finished him. With Koreschkov (19-1), he couldn’t get it to the ground and couldn’t deal with either the reach or power differential standing. Henderson, just like Kyle Dake at the Olympic wrestling trials, was simply too small for the elite level at his new weight class. The win opened some eyes on Koreshkov, and at first glance makes UFC’s allowing Henderson to leave look smarter than it first appeared. Henderson hasn’t had a dominant win against a top fighter since he was one step ahead of Nate Diaz all night long in a title defense back in 2012. He had close decision wins over Josh Thomson and Gilbert Melendez that could have gone either way, although that works both ways as his loss to Donald Cerrone also could have gone his way, and for a time he was known for the king of getting the nod in close decisions. Everyone learned quickly on Friday that Henderson’s future is at lightweight. That’s Bellator’s best weight class to begin with, given talent like Will Brooks, Thomson, Michael Chandler, Patricky Pitbull Freire, Marcin Held and Dave Jansen. Henderson’s rival, Anthony Pettis, and partner in putting on one of the legendary fights in MMA history, is also looking for answers. Pettis went from the cover of the Wheaties box and was thought to be one of the new superstars of the sport the way he blasted through Cerrone, Henderson and Melendez. But he followed a one-sided title loss to underdog Rafael dos Anjos, with two more losses to Eddie Alvarez and Edson Barboza. At 29, it shouldn’t be an age issue, but he is clearly a very different fighter than he was two years ago. The return on Saturday of Jon Jones, who has to be in every conversation when you are debating who the single greatest MMA fighter who ever lived is, also wasn’t what was expected. The difference between the very goods and the greats is that Jones, on his bad days, still wins, and in this case, won handily. It’s a testament to Jones that he could appear sluggish and rusty, and still completely dominate Ovince Saint Preux and leave him as the latest person who seemed to get into the cage with no answer on how to combat Jones’ physical gifts. If anything, if the weaknesses Jones showed make his next fight with Daniel Cormier, as more sellable. There had been a problem because people who were interested in the fight a fight time, 820,000 buys strong, saw a rather conclusive victory for Jones. But now there is the talking point – if it had been Cormier, and not Saint Preux, in the cage, who would have won? As time passes, the fight delayed by Jones’ legal issues and Cormier’s recent injury, Cormier, at 37, keeps getting older, which isn’t a good thing for him. So does Jones, but at 28, in theory, it is a good thing for him. Jones was very willing to criticize himself for not taking advantage of openings, but while everyone else figured it was the ring rust of nearly 17 months off, Jones claimed it was the late change in opponents. In fairness, Saint Preux and Cormier are completely different stylistically. “I would have beat him up pretty good,” Jones said about if Cormier was across the cage from him on Saturday, claiming that for months he’s been working with the idea of …

continue reading in source www.mmafighting.com