UFC's Johny Hendricks has game plan for GSP but still awaiting bout agreement
- from http://www.mmajunkie.com/ on May 27, 2013
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The No. 1 contender said he planned to track down UFC President Dana White to confirm whether St-Pierre had officially committed – and even suggested White put together a conference call with the three of them if St-Pierre needed additional convincing.
But that seems far from necessary at this point. According to White, St-Pierre (24-2 MMA, 18-2 UFC) believes Chris Weidman will defeat Anderson Silva at UFC 162 and nix GSP’s potential superfight with the middleweight champ. “Rush” also has said he expects his next challenge to be Hendricks (15-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC).
The road to the title shot hasn’t been smooth for Hendricks, who’s previously been passed over for the No. 1 contender spot, but it can’t get any shorter at this point. Now, the work of putting together a fight camp should begin.
A bout agreement would certainly ease Hendricks’ mind, though.
“We think we already have the game plan,” he said. “We just need the opponent to accept.”
When a caller phoned in to talk about the likelihood of St-Pierre outwrestling him in the fight, Hendricks pointed to his recent win over former interim champ Carlos Condit, whom the champ smothered en route to a decision win and successful title defense.
“I’m not going to say [St-Pierre is] never going to take me down,” Hendricks said. “But GSP’s said this for years: ‘You’ve never faced somebody like me.’ Well, guess what, you’ve never faced somebody like me. I’ve got knockout power, I’m stronger than anybody he’s faced so far, and my wrestling is better than anybody he’s faced so far.
“I took Carlos Condit down more in three rounds than GSP did in five rounds.”
According to official UFC stat provider FightMetric, Hendricks did, in fact, put Condit on the mat more often, landing 12 takedowns to the champ’s seven.
Still, Hendricks is likely to be a significant underdog heading into the bout despite wins over top 10 welterweights such as Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck, Martin Kampmann and Condit.
“The way I look at it, I’m only using 80 percent of my strength,” Hendricks said. “I can’t wait for GSP because I’m going to use it all.”
“Bigg Rigg” said he’d like to face St-Pierre sometime between October and December. The UFC’s winter schedule is still filling out, though the promotion’s year-end pay-per-view event in Las Vegas would be a prime candidate to host the fight. Following this past Saturday’s UFC 160 event, White said he hadn’t set a date for the fight.
But Hendricks already is talking up the fight for his new blue-chip sponsor Reebok, which reportedly is close to inking a deal with the UFC.
“If I can get Reebok vs. GSP, [who is sponsored by] UnderArmour, then I get to smash him, and Reebok is better than UnderArmour,” he said.
For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.
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