UFC UFC on FOX 10: Henderson vs. Thomson - Jan 25th

[Dale]

Unlike the five UFC on FOX events before it, UFC on FOX 10 on Jan. 25 won't be headlined by a title fight.

But the fighters atop the bill at Chicago's United Center knows what it's like to wear the gold.


Former UFC and WEC lightweight champion Benson Henderson meets former Strikeforce champ Josh Thomson in the five-round main event.

For Henderson (19-3), this marks his first bout since Anthony Pettis submitted him in the first round of their UFC 164 bout to take his title in August. Henderson had a seven-fight win streak ended in his title loss. He's won his past 17 fights against fighters other than Pettis, to whom he's twice lost.


Thomson (21-5), meanwhile, was scheduled to challenge Pettis for the title at the upcoming UFC on FOX 9 event in Sacramento, but Pettis' knee injury put title hopes aside. The American Kickboxing Academy fighter made an emphatic return to the UFC in April, when he knocked out Nate Diaz at UFC on FOX 7.


Meanwhile, the UFC also officially announced three other bouts for the main card in Chicago. In the co-main event, veteran heavyweight Gabriel Gonzaga (16-7), winner of back-to-back first-round knockouts, squares off against rising star Stipe Miocic (10-1); Donald Cerrone (21-6), fresh of his UFC 167 finish of Evan Dunham, meets Brazilian Adriano Martins (25-6) at lightweight, and Indiana's Darren Elkins (17-3) squares off with Jeremy Stephens (22-9) in an intriguing featherweight bout.

Doesn't look a bad card to be honest although it probably does lack that title fight to give it a big time main event.

​

 

[Slim]

watching the prelims... Sergio Pettis is gonna be a dang good fighter. Only 20 years old right now. He gonna rise. Bruce Leroy ... dang. Also good.

Time for the main card to start.

 

[Slim]

Mannnnn that kick by Cerrone... that was lethal. Shin to the neck. I always wondered why they kept him around... the guy always shows up to fight and when he wins... its GOOD

 

[Slim]

Well Gonzaga vs. Miocic... 1st round was pretty good... beyond that... all Miocic. Gonzaga doesn't have a good gas tank at all.

Main event... started off real good and competitive. Then Thompson broke his hand. The fight was still good but wasn't as good as it could have been. I'd def be pissed if I was Thompson.

But it was a split decision victory for Henderson.

 

[Dale]

Think i'll just check out Cowboy, big fan of that guy. Pretty sure I read the crowd was booing after the main event ended?

 

[Dale]

That Cowboy KO was pretty sweet, right on the neck.

Decided to watch the Caceres and Pettis fight too as I read good things about it and wasn't really disappointed, nice back and forth fight with the late submission. Pettis looks about 12 though

 

[Slim]

Heh heh well he is only 20. Such a young gun but he shows a lot of promise. And Bruce Leroy... he seems to be getting better and better.

And yeah I think the crowd believed that Thompson should have won. But this does put a hamper in the lightweight title fight now. Thompson took a chance and looked like he could have won but lost. So does that mean that Benson is going to become the new title challenger? Or does Gilbert get a shot ahead of Benson although Benson has defeated him before.

Dang. I really did start to look forward to Thompson vs. Pettis.

 

[Chris]

Caceras/Pettis was fucking awesome and the KO by Cowboy

The two big fights were pretty fucking boring though.

 

[Dale]

Heh heh well he is only 20. Such a young gun but he shows a lot of promise. And Bruce Leroy... he seems to be getting better and better.

And yeah I think the crowd believed that Thompson should have won. But this does put a hamper in the lightweight title fight now. Thompson took a chance and looked like he could have won but lost. So does that mean that Benson is going to become the new title challenger? Or does Gilbert get a shot ahead of Benson although Benson has defeated him before.

Dang. I really did start to look forward to Thompson vs. Pettis.

I think Bruce Leroy will get found out when he moves further up the ranks as I think the higher quality guys will be able to take him apart on the feet.

As for #1 Contender, Dana has said that Benson aint it so will be interesting to see where they go with that now. Gilbert is #2 and without a fight, I'm pretty sure TJ Grant #3 is without a fight although I think he still hasn't been cleared for the concussion and Nurmagomedov is #7 and without a fight. I reckon they should try again to schedule Gil vs. Khabib and pretty much make that a #1 Contenders bout.

 

[Slim]

I think Bruce Leroy will get found out when he moves further up the ranks as I think the higher quality guys will be able to take him apart on the feet.

As for #1 Contender, Dana has said that Benson aint it so will be interesting to see where they go with that now. Gilbert is #2 and without a fight, I'm pretty sure TJ Grant #3 is without a fight although I think he still hasn't been cleared for the concussion and Nurmagomedov is #7 and without a fight. I reckon they should try again to schedule Gil vs. Khabib and pretty much make that a #1 Contenders bout.

Yeah he will get found out and exposed eventually. But for now... he still has time to improve and get better. So he may be pretty decent by the time he fights the higher quality guys. He still young so he has that to his advantage.

And it kinda sucks that Benson is getting shafted like that. Edgar lost the belt and got immediate rematch, then dropped weight for another title shot. You've had other challengers that have a decent fight, lose, win one fight and get a challenge for the belt again. But Benson seems to be left out in the cold. Then again his fight was kinda boring and he didn't finish anybody so he has that going against him.

But yeah as far as I've been able to find Grant still isn't cleared so he has that to deal with. Gilbert had that awesome fight with Sanchez so he still looks good. May need one more fight to get that title shot. And that other guy is undefeated so that always looks good. But I guess in Benson's case... he needs a finish to really help his case cause he is almost getting boring. He is good, athletic, but just bland.

So yeah Gilbert vs. that one guy would be nice. Thompson should probably get a fight against Grant whenever he recovers. But then that leaves Benson out in the cold pretty much with nobody to fight yet. And then when Pettis gets healed he can fight the winner of Gilbert vs. that one guy. But then there is also talks of the fight between Aldo vs. Pettis although not really sure if there are still talks of that happening or not.

Lightweight is very interesting right now though.

 

[Dale]

Gotta remember aswell though that Bendo has now lost twice to Pettis whereas at least with JDS/Cain it was 1-1 before their third fight and why he isn't getting an immediate matchup with Cain again despite being widely regarded as the clear #2 in the division.

Also for Benson, he's had 9 UFC fights with the 1 loss to Pettis while the other 8 have all been decisions which doesn't make for good reading really. I've seen people compare to GSP in the sense that doesn't finish fights but at least when GSP was getting decision wins he was head and shoulders above his opponent bar the Hendricks fight. The Frankie and Gilbert fights were widely scored against Benson too if I remember rightly?

 

[The Cork]

Should be Aldo/Pettis after he wipes the floor with Lamas, fight was scheduled before anyway.

Dunno why Thomson didn't use his kiclboxing more? Although he was outwrasslin Bendo till he broke his thumb.