...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
UFC Lightweight Champion Ben Henderson successfully defended his title earlier this month against Nate Diaz, using a combination of a smart striking gameplan and an excellent grappling game to dominate the five round fight.
Nate's older brother Nick will be the next to fight for a title, as he'll take on UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre at UFC 158. On a special UFC Tonight program on Monday, St-Pierre talked to Henderson, and said he'd be taking some things from his UFC on Fox 5 fight when he faces the elder Diaz in Montreal.
"That's funny you asked that question because I watched very carefully your fight against Nate Diaz," St-Pierre said to Henderson (transcribed by MMAMania.com. "I'm going to try to use some of the stuff you have done in the fight to win over Nick Diaz, as well. I'm going to learn from what you did and try to apply it in my game plan. Thanks for showing me the blueprint."
Penick's Analysis: Henderson's gameplan wasn't much different from what St-Pierre normally does, so I don't know that it's so much a blueprint as it was Henderson showing the effectiveness of GSP's style against one Diaz brother. St-Pierre was always going to be out to out-grapple Nick Diaz and try to intelligently strike with him as well. That's what his gameplan was going to be regardless of what Henderson did against Nate, and now he has seen it can be effective. That's going to make him a major favorite into March's UFC 158 event.
(Attention MMATorch app users: Make sure to upgrade to the latest edition of the MMATorch app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device!)
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
