Johny Hendricks believes Jake Ellenberger is more dangerous than GSP – UFC News
UFC welterweight contender Johny Hendricks believes his upcoming opponent Jake Ellenberger is more dangerous than welterweight titlist Georges St-Pierre. Johny Hendricks stands as the number one contender to face titlist GSP but he was not given the honour.
Instead, it was GSP’s long time rival Nick Diaz who was selected by the champion for a showdown.
Hendricks is now scheduled to face Jake Ellenberger at UFC 158, the same card on which GSP will be fighting Diaz. The event will take place in Montreal, GSP’s hometown. While many think Hendricks was ripped off his rights, the fight himself is quite satisfied,
as he believes fighting Ellenberger will make him ready for GSP.
“He's shown that he can knock people out, and whenever you have that kind of power, you have to respect it. You have to know, ‘OK, this guy is a heavy-handed guy.' One shot can put you away,” said Hendricks to Sherdog’s Beatdown Radio.
“That's what makes fighting people like that a little bit more of a challenge, a fun challenge, because no matter what happens -- it might be the second or third round -- you still have to worry about everything. It makes it that much more exciting ....
(with) Georges St. Pierre, you don't have to worry about that knockout punch,” he added.
As much as Hendricks wanted to face GSP, he was forced to fight Ellenberger. Hendricks has already established himself as a knockout specialist with 8 knockout wins, 1 submission win and 5 decision wins out of the 15 fights he has been in. He lost one fight
via decision but overall he possesses a good mma record.
On the other hand, Ellenberger is a more experienced fighter with 28 wins and 6 losses in his bag. Ellenberger has defeated 17 of his opponents by knockout, 5 by submission and 6 by decision.
For Hendricks, Ellenberger is surely an opponent to face before fighting GSP. If he wins, he definitely will come up as an elite opponent for the welterweight titlist, who is a monster in the division and unbeatable to many fans, fighters and analysts.
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