Re: UFC 145: Jones vs. Evans (Apr/21) Easy fight to sell to casual fans who think MMA is like boxing and you can be a champ in your 40's. Lots of fans would tune in to see Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, or Randy Couture fight Jones, too. The reality is that Hendo will give up over a foot in reach, 17-years, and really only has an advantage in one category--punching power--which is all but nullified by the reach disadvantage.
That's just the allure of Hendo though. People love watching him because he could drop that big right at any time. So long as the other fighter allows the fight to remain standing its going to be a fun fight and there's always a chance of brutal KO. Hard to say the guy is overhyped though. Hes coming off 4 wins against Babalu, Cavalcante, Fedor, and Shogun. Prior to the Shields loss he beat Palhares, Rich Franklin, and Michael Bisping. He's easily got the best case for the next shot at the belt and hes been on a roll.
Going into the Shields fight, he threw his back out as well and he had major issues cutting weight because of some medications he was on. He says it was his worst weight cut of his career and the most painful.
The one good thing about Hendo is, he's damned near impossible to stop. He's never been KO'd and has been subbed just 3 times in his career. Ironically by 3 guys who have trained together, The Nogeuira brothers both did it in Pride and Anderson Silva did it in their title match. Hendo should put up a decent fight but I don't expect him to have much success. This will be a test for Jones to see if he can stop such a tough opponent. I'm giving him a bit of a pass for his fight with Evans as they were past training partners and that may explain his hesitancy. He still has 13 stoppages in 16 career wins.
