Hendo Speaks Out On His Next Opponent, Jon Jones

[No More Sorrow]

When you win the SuperBowl, the next day they are not talking about who you compete with next. But this is not football, it is fighting, and Jon Jones was already talking Dan Henderson.

"Dan Henderson is an awesome opponent," Jones said. "It's just going to be a lot of things to conquer in this fight. He has extreme knockout power."


"I feel great that I already have a mission. He's a winner. He has a huge fanbase. I'm sure the haters will come right away, which I'm OK with."


Jones' greatest strengths are his ability to throw powerful shots from awkward angles, and his ability to take it from the clinch to the ground with Greco.


Neither of those skillsets matches up well with Henderson, who can take a hell of a shot, and is highly unlikely to be skyed by Jones.


"You've really got to get inside and fight with him and end up in the clinch with him a lot," said Henderson. "Jones is better than most guys in the clinch. ... (But) that's where I'm most comfortable. At the same time I need to be real careful with catching one of those goofy elbows that he throws."


"He looked pretty solid," Henderson said of Saturday's fight with former champion Rashad Evans. "He threw a lot of stuff that's, I guess, typical of him. Unorthodox with some nasty elbows. A lot of kicks."


"Rashad's game should have been a little bit more mix it up from the outside and threaten more with takedowns and put Jones on his back. Rashad fought Jon Jones' fight, not his own. ... I definitely saw (openings) that Rashad should have capitalized on."


In 2009 Jones compared his clinch game to that of the team Quest principals, Lindland, Couture, and Henderson, that brought it to MMA.


"Their Greco's a lot different than mine. They don't execute a lot of throws. They just use their Greco tie-up just to maintain good positioning, or maybe to hold their opponents against the cage.


"I look at my clinch as a little more active clinch, where I'm always looking for takedowns or different angles or strikes and things, (so) I don't really look to those guys for clinch knowledge. I think we have two different views on the clinch."

I like how he calls the elbow shots goofy, and then turns around and calls them nasty. Those are some serious elbows that Jones throws, no need to down play them.

 

[Slim]

All I know... is that this is going to be a very intense fight... and should happen this summer. I'm thinking August. Since Jones didn't suffer any real damage, June and July are already full, plus it would allow Jones to have at least one more fight to close out the year no matter how damaged he becomes in the fight.

 

[The Cork]

It's gonna be a brilliant fight, everything that Shad/Jones wasn't.

The only downfall for Hendo is the difference in speed between the two. They are equal in wrestling terms, both have solid chins and are very clever in what they do. The fact that it's a 5 round fight will be Hendo's downfall though, we saw how bad he gassed in the Shogun fight but even then, who wouldnt be knackered after a few rounds of that....

This will be Bones closest fight yet IMO, maybe a split decision.

 

[Deezy]

Hendo's only real option is to play Randy Couture and clinch him against the cage and hope for an H-Bomb to land.

If Rashad couldn't do much against that range, then I doubt /Hendo could do anything if he wanted to stand and trade with Jones.