*SPoilers*UFC On Fox 5: Henderson vs Diaz. BJ Penn, MacDonald, Rua, Gustafsson

**PointyShinyBurn** · Posted On: 12/10/2012 9:03am

The knee bar is much harder to finish, especially on a stockier guy, than the heel-hook or toehold where he has far fewer and smaller muscles to oppose you.

**Vieux Normand** · Posted On: 12/10/2012 3:54pm

I imagine--wrongly perhaps--that I'm seeing a lot less skilled ground action in UFC bouts in general. Shame if it were true: the sequential repositionings one sees in skilled mad-scrambles made UFC one of the more interesting shows to watch.

**hpr** · Posted On: 12/10/2012 4:29pm

For all his big talk Penn looked like a man that didn't really want to be there pretty much from the start. It felt like he was doing it for the payday and damn, that must be just about the hardest way to make money ever, close second to fights in the class of Don Frye vs. Jerome Le Banner.*

Wasn't surprised at what happened in Diaz vs. Henderson. Even before the match I couldn't really figure out any way for Nate tow in it. Tapping Henderson is next to impossible, there's no fucking way Diaz would knock him out and Henderson is at home in the clinch. Plus regardless of how crappy the match was Condit already showed the world how to nullify up the default Diaz tactic and CG's camp seemed way too arrogant to learn from it.

Damn you Gustafsson. Why do you have to be a Swede? I love your uppercut and boxing in general but you need to learn the Struve seems to have learned and Kampmann will never do -- With shoddy (counter) defence you'll get KTFO'd sooner or later. But what Alex said -- With the current skillset Gustafsson is a second rate clone of Jon Jones sans the wrestling skills. Really the only thing he has going for him is that mr. Bones hasn't really fought anyone with a good reach and might be surprised by another outfighter if he chooses to do stand-up with him.

*been finally watching pride from the start, thus an old-ass irrelevant reference

**Nefron** · Posted On: 12/10/2012 9:16pm

Rua was throwing so much of that right hand that the tall Swede started ducking under it frequently.

Benson Henderson is great, he really shut Diaz down. Loved those leg jabs.

**Zerstörer90** · Posted On: 12/10/2012 11:45pm

My opinions on the event:

Bendo crushed Nate. Didn't see that coming. His Strength and Conditioning is scary at that weight. He made Nate carry his weight and drowned one of the diaz brothers. Also some creative and dynamic striking combinations, setting up some beautiful 4th and 5th round takedowns. Bendo should defend his title against the winner of Pettis-Cerrone, which will probably happen. Pettis has beaten bendo before, and Cerrone had a great fight with him last time, and has significantly improved his skills since.

As for Nate, I think he should have a rematch with Gray Maynard, or the winner of Guida-Hioki. He needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to deal with wrestlers and being clinched against the cage. also Leg kicks.

Gus did exactly what a taller, younger, fresher fighter should have done: Push the pace, fight on the outside, throw straight punches and knee shogun in the face, a lot. Also some pretty sweet ankle picks. I'd like to see Gus fight Rashad before he gets a title shot to be honest. I think he has the reach to stifle Jones standing up, but as is I feel Jones would toss him and elbow him and submit him.

Shogun should work on his cardio and fight Ryan Bader next. He's been out of the picture since the Machida fight, but he's a legit top 10 LHW, I think that would be a fun fight to watch.

Rory put on a great 2 rounds against BJ, so great in fact, that BJ couldn't smash his face in like Condit did for stepping off the gas in the 3rd. Though, I thoroughly enjoyed the 2nd round liver shot fest, props to BJ for having more balls than brains. He's gonna piss blood for months. Rory needs to push the pace through the 3rd round in order to be able to hang with guys like Condit. I'd really like to see him fight Nick Diaz or Johnny Hendricks next in a main event 5-rounder. Hendricks to test his chin, and Diaz to test his cardio and composure in a 5 round war.

BJ Penn should drop to LW again and fight his way up from the bottom. He wants to be recognized as one of the top fighters in the world, and he can do that at LW, if he is humble, and goes back to the drawing board. I think the winner of Jim Miller-Joe Lauzon would make for a good match up.

**DaTedBear** · Posted On: 12/11/2012 11:52am

Was surprised at Swick. Expected more, but got the same tired stuff. Porr old BJ needs to retire. NOW! Henderson was everything I expected and just loved the punishment he gave to Diaz' legs. Very effective.

**elipson** · Posted On: 12/12/2012 12:08am

I almost want GSP to lose to either Nick Diaz or Hendricks just so Rory doesn't have to fight his mentor. I don't want to see that happen.

**Gluckmann** · Posted On: 12/12/2012 2:24am

Originally Posted by elipson

I almost want GSP to lose to either Nick Diaz or Hendricks just so Rory doesn't have to fight his mentor. I don't want to see that happen.

He's said before that he won't fight GSP, and that he'll eventually move to middleweight, so no worries: he'll stay at welterweight for a bit, and then jump to middleweight when there's talk of him having to fight GSP.

**Kambei Shimada** · Posted On: 12/12/2012 4:34am

Originally Posted by hpr

Damn you Gustafsson. Why do you have to be a Swede? I love your uppercut and boxing in general but you need to learn the Struve seems to have learned and Kampmann will never do -- With shoddy (counter) defence you'll get KTFO'd sooner or later. But what Alex said -- With the current skillset Gustafsson is a second rate clone of Jon Jones sans the wrestling skills. Really the only thing he has going for him is that mr. Bones hasn't really fought anyone with a good reach and might be surprised by another outfighter if he chooses to do stand-up with him.

*been finally watching pride from the start, thus an old-ass irrelevant reference

To be fair this was Gus's weakest performance since he started taking his training 'seriously'. (after the loss to Phil Davis)

Even so he dismantled Shogun with relative ease.

I think he'll be a much tougher fight for Jones than people think. He's probably the only LHW that can match Jones for size/strength and is arguably the better striker.

Have to say I thought Henderson looked great.

**alex** · Posted On: 12/12/2012 3:56pm

Originally Posted by Kambei Shimada

I think he'll be a much tougher fight for Jones than people think. He's probably the only LHW that can match Jones for size/strength and is arguably the better striker.

when you say "arguably" you mean "if you squint and are on copious amounts of coke" right? i mean... gustaffsons boxing is ok, and hes got range, but jones is on another level striking wise. not that it matters because even IF their striking was close, jones would just take him down. like someone else said, gus should fight rashad first before he goes near jones.