Contributor: Ben Kohn
We are almost there, finally. The Welterweight title fight between the greatest welterweight of all time Georges St. Pierre and the man who many truly feel is the one who could dethrone him with the ungodly power in his left hand, Johny Hendricks. Truthfully, this fight has got me insanely excited and I cannot wait for it. Johny has made it clear he believes he will knock out GSP and not only that, but really believes that he is the better wrestler because of his collegiate background. GSP plans on making him eat those words and we have already seen him take down wrestlers with top notch wrestling credentials with ease. GSP has stifled, dominated, and dismantled every opponent he has faced (aside from that one time Jake Shields blinded him with his crouching tiger, hidden eye gouge technique) and really does seem almost unbeatable. But I do remember many people saying that about Anderson Silva before Weidman knocked him out. Is Johny Hendricks going to turn the MMA world on its collective heads by knocking out GSP? Or will GSP continue his run of dominance in the Welterweight division? On Saturday night we will find out and I am so fucking excited for it.
Let’s get right into how these two stack up striking-wise. GSP is definitely the more diverse striker of the two. He uses punches, kicks, knees, elbows, and superman-shit to control his opponents from the outside and potshot them either to avoid grappling exchanges or to get his opponents backing up so he can work the takedown. Against Condit, he used constant pressure to back Condit up to stifle his kicking game which worked very well. Against a pressure fighter like Diaz, who was a perceived danger on the feet right in the beginning of the fight, he slowly backed up a bit, kicked Diaz and jabbing before waiting for him to try and attack and shooting right under taking him down. The ability for GSP to mix things up, both with his strikes and his movement and footwork in the cage, will play a key role in this fight. Hendricks is a pressure fighter as well on the feet as is evidenced in his KO of Kampmann and his fight with Condit. Whenever he would jump in throwing heaters with that insanely powerful left hand, it was always him moving forward during the attacks. Whenever he was pressured backwards though, his offense was stifled and he was very limited in his attacks. Luckily for Johny that he’s an excellent wrestler in his own right and was able to shoot whenever put into danger. However, against GSP, that may not be an option and he will need to have worked out fighting off of his back foot in order to seriously pressure GSP. GSP’s footwork and angle cutting is what will really decide this fight on the feet though. Look at his fight with Diaz, also a southpaw, and watch both of their lead feet as they circle and move. GSP’s left foot is always just outside of Diaz’s. Every time that Diaz stepped in, GSP would be able to counter with a left hook, left jab, or right straight. He had the outside angle for virtually the whole fight and his knowledge of using that footwork allowed him to land jabs at will against the slower and plodding Diaz. As vaunted as GSP’s wrestling game is his striking is just as potent and that really is scary to think about.
Hendricks on the other hand is pretty much the opposite of GSP on the feet. While GSP is calculating and very very technical, Johny is more about biting down on his mouthpiece and letting those hands go. That’s not to say Johny has no technique but he is pretty raw compared to GSP’s polished striking. Johny in his fight with Condit did exactly the opposite of what GSP did against Diaz. He was very plodding in his footwork while moving; much like Diaz, and Condit was able to capitalize on that a lot in their fight making Johny miss while he circled away. What Johny does do exceptionally well is cover huge distance on his 
leaps inside with that monster left hand. Most likely from his wrestling background, Johny has this incredible explosion on his strikes that is really not seen in many fighters at all. His fight with Kampmann really illustrates that skill of his as he covered almost the entire Bud Light logo length in the middle of the octagon on a right hook to left hand combination. Using Kampmann’s spread legs; I counted that distance being almost five times the width of his open leg stance. That’s really insane if you think about it and is something GSP has no encountered before. In my opinion, it’s also why Hendricks has been so successful in landing his left hand so often despite its predictability. Johny’s incredible explosiveness allows him to cover the distance with such a primitive attack and land it with consistency. Unlike the slower Hendo with his H-bomb, he does not have to corner his opponents because he can rush forward from virtually anywhere and knows if his opponent doesn’t back up, they are going to taste his power. Against the cage, he will also let fly with reckless abandon and that’s something GSP will need to look out for. Overall, Johny’s striking is very simple and he doesn’t really diversify his attack, although he says he can if he wants to. The thing is, his simple attack works and he won’t need to change it if it continues to work but he definitely will need to shore up some of the holes that Condit exposed, namely his inability to fight moving backwards and his defense.
The final verdict on who gets the striking edge is not too hard to guess. GSP has beaten more accomplished strikers than Johny before, he has way more variety and much better defense, and can take a hard shot as evidenced in his fight with Condit. While obviously Johny probably has the most power of anyone GSP faced before, really Johny’s ability to enter inside really fast and explosively and his incredible power are all he’s got. Edge in striking goes to GSP.
Alright time to talk about the wrestling and grappling aspects of this fight. As you may have already read my previous fight breakdown for GSP, it’s pretty clear GSP is among the top three MMA wrestlers in the game today. Fun factoid by the way, he has the most takedowns in UFC history with 84 and the highest takedown accuracy percentage at 75%. It’s pretty ridiculous how good GSP is at wrestling without any wrestling background at all. What makes his game even better is that his takedown game is almost completely centered on his double leg takedown. There aren’t many fancy trips or throws (but he is proficient in trip takedowns should the need arise) although he will employ the single leg often enough used during his fights. What he does is have multiple set ups in order to enter under his opponents hips and blast through on the double leg. Whether backing up or backing his opponent down, his takedowns are effective in the center of the octagon and even more impressive, they are equally effective against the cage as well. Against Condit, a bunch of his takedowns came off the cage. GSP was able to back Condit up using his jab and would get him to stand tall by jabbing up making Condit lean slightly back before shooting in on Condit’s exposed hips. He grabbed the single, ran the pipe, and got the takedown (first round, very first takedown of the fight). 
GSP’s varied entries into simple single and double legs are very effective and what makes him such an incredible takedown artist. Once he’s on top, I will admit it’s gotta suck hardcore for his opponents.
Having GSP on top is an absolute nightmare of an experience. BJJ, Judo, and Wrestling, GSP has faced fighters coming from any major grappling background (except Sambo as far as I know of) and dominated every single one of them. His top control is phenomenal and he demonstrated that beautifully against very dangerous guard players in Condit and Diaz. While Condit’s active guard was a handful, GSP busted him up badly with elbows and punches all while avoiding the steady stream of armbars and triangle attempts thrown up by Condit the whole time he was on his back. GSP was able to pass the guards of Condit and Diaz and completely controlled Diaz throughout there grappling exchanges. Although he can be damaging on top, sometimes he will opt for control over anything else and it can lead to some long periods of relative inactivity. Still having GSP on top is basically a guarantee of losing that round. The one knock on GSP’s ground game is his seeming lack of an offensive submission game. GSP’s last submission win was over Matt Hughes in 2007. As impressive as that win is, it happened 6 years ago. Despite that, his defensive submission game is fantastic as I mentioned before and obviously with such a strong top game, a submission is always a danger for his opponent. Truth be told, GSP is probably the second worst fighter to have on top of you after Jon Jones and that’s only because of Jones’s hellbows. Let’s see how Johny stacks up against GSP in the wrestling and grappling department.
First off, I want to address the Josh Koscheck fight in which Johny was taken down and controlled by Kos for a large portion of the round. Many fans seem to think this was an indication that Hendricks has no chance of stopping the takedowns of GSP if he couldn’t stop Kos. Many also feel that the fight should have gone to Koscheck as well and Hendricks shouldn’t even be contending for the title. Looking at the stats of the fight, it’s very clear that Hendricks won round 2 and Kos won round 3. Round 1 was the issue and personally, I don’t feel it should be. Hendricks landed more total and significant strikes and was also able to score a takedown while Kos scored none. Throw in that Kos clearly poked Hendricks in the eye and the referee just ignored it for some reason and it was a 10-9 for Hendricks and that for me was his fight clearly.
Now that this has been addressed, let’s look at Hendricks’s wrestling and grappling. Generally, Hendricks prefers to stand and trade as is evidenced by his previous bodies of work. When he does employ his wrestling he has had mixed success against good wrestler such as Koscheck, although GSP struggled to take down Kos as well in their second fight, but has excelled against striking based fighters such as Condit. Johny took down Condit 12 out of 15 times and while he had difficulty controlling him and Condit was able to get up, it is rather impressive that he was so successful in getting him down. Most of his takedowns in that fight were off of the cage and when he has open space, he prefers to strike. When he forces his opponents against the cage is when he will blast through on the double leg, not hesitating to lift his opponent up and slam them down as demonstrated on 
Condit multiple times. Once on top, he is pretty bare bones and has very little flash in his game. Obviously he has never been submitted before and has shown some very good submission defense before. His ground pound is not especially creative and is much like his standup in that it’s meat and potatoes, grind em’ out, and get the job done. His offensive submission game has never been displayed really and I don’t really expect it to in this fight. If he takes down GSP, he will look to blast him with hard punches as GSP’s guard is nowhere near as tricky or dangerous as Condit’s. Condit’s submissions and elbows/punches from the guard really stifled Johny’s top game and could be something GSP employs should he end up on bottom. Overall, Johny’s grappling game is geared toward either keeping the fight standing, or grinding out his opponent when he feels like he is in danger or losing the exchanges which is a really good thing. Johny is smart in that he knows when to shoot and when not to which may help him against such a smart and tactical fighter in GSP.
Once again, it’s hard to justify giving Hendricks an edge in the wrestling and grappling portion of the fights. Aside from the fact that GSP has a much better track record of MMA wrestling, he also has a seamless transition from his striking to his takedowns and really does have the best double leg takedown in MMA. While Johny has an amazing pedigree in amateur wrestling, he has not translated that as well into his MMA game. The edge in wrestling and grappling goes to GSP.
The intangibles are something that will always matter in a fight. Let’s go through a list of them and see where each stands in respect to them.
Power and chin: GSP has a better chin than people give him credit for and clearly has plenty of power in his punches (he broke Koscheck’s face with a fucking jab!). That being said, he does not have the chin to take a direct hit from Johny’s left hand. Johny on the other hand displayed a very good chin against Condit and Koscheck as he took some hard shots flush and didn’t 
drop or stop fighting. The edge in power and chin definitely go to Hendricks.
Cardio: GSP has amazing cardio and rarely slows down in fights. He has plenty of experience in going the distance in five round fights and is always in amazing shape. Hendricks has never been in a five rounder and seems to have faded a bit by round three in a few of his fights (see Condit and Koscheck). GSP’s experience in these kinds of fights will definitely be a factor if the fight goes into the later rounds. Edge in cardio goes to GSP.
The bottom line is that GSP is better technically in every aspect of MMA. Better striker, better MMA wrestler, better grappler, better cardio, and better fight IQ. The aspects where Johny trumps GSP are in his sickening power, toughness, and explosiveness. He also has a confidence about him that reminds me of the same confidence Weidman had against Silva. He truly believes he is going to win this fight and that can be really dangerous. The last thing is that All but one of Johny’s KO’s in the UFC has come in the first round, the exception being Charlie Brenneman which came 40 seconds in to the second round. Despite the overwhelming evidence in favor of GSP winning this fight, and if I was picking with my brain I’d say GSP by unanimous decision, I am picking Hendricks to win this fight purely by picking with my heart. I have met and conversed with him and watched him roll at Marcelo’s and there is no way I am going to pick against him. So with all that being said….
Final Prediction: Johny Hendricks by KO Round 1.
-Ben can be reached at [email protected] or @agentbenten.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
