Ben Henderson vs Andrey Koreshkov

I don't know if any of you watched this fight but man that kid beat the shit out of Henderson.

Ive watchd every fight Henderson has been in and he never has been punished like that. it was embarrassing to watch and I'm a Henderson fan.

it makes me think that some of these guys should be ranked higher in the MMA rankings.

- why is bellator keeping Michael page under the radar. that dude is awesome and should be fighting the best of the best that they have to offer.

- the entire card was pretty exciting and I like the production bellator is putting out.

- don't know if anyone else caught this but bellator is going to be going after rory McDonald pretty hard after his next fight. I wonder if they will be able to sway him

I'm just gonna leave this here.....

Triggerman99 wrote:

If they're taking these UFC castoffs and promoting them as the cream of the crop in Bellator, what does that say about their own roster and standards?
If champions and top ranked UFC fighters (not nomads like Bendo and washed up guys like Rampage and Kongo) start jumping ship to Bellator, then yeah; Bellator is suddenly a threat to the throne. But what's the winning formula for them right now? Their homegrown guys beating up on over-the-hill former UFC fighters looking for a big payday, or over-the-hill UFC fighters beating up on Bellator's best homegrown fighters and proving where the best fighters truly reside?
I just don't see a scenario where Bellator ultimately comes out looking better off by signing these guys.

Triggerman99 wrote:

I hope Bellator keeps on keeping on and becomes the worldwide leader in employing fighters 3 years from retirement. That can be their thing. I'd rather see former UFC fighters go down swinging in Bellator than in regional circuits.

Triggerman99 wrote:

Again;
Bellator: The UFC Graveyard

http://www.mmastandard.net/t3399-the-list-is-growing

I touched a little bit on it in the betting topics.

Quote :

Bendo looked terrible last night... What the hell happened? He seemed trigger-shy and slower than usual, which is odd since I figured he would have a high speed advantage. Back to 155 I suppose.

Quote :

Yeah... between his and Bendo's latest showing... IDK who's was worse. Do you guys think it had anything to do with the new USADA testing?

The more I think about it the more I think the size was just too much for Benson... but what is Pettis's excuse? That whole era of WEC guys just aren't looking too hot lately.

Say what you want about the UFC, but they do seem to have a knack for knowing when a fighter has topped-out and/or is on the decline and letting them walk.
Bendo is this year's Jon Fitch or Tim Sylvia.

Yeah, and also think the UFC is better at knowing how much guys are worth (in terms of selling PPVs).

It's the combination of marketability and talent.

True.
He's not exactly a "needle mover", and now he just lost his first fight in a lesser org.

Not good.

trigg, not to open up this whole discussion again but I don't understand why you posted that.

Henderson was a top 5 ranked ufc fighter in the lw division and a top 10 ranked ww fighter in the ufc
after 30 fights always at the most elite level of fighting he has never been handled like that with the exception of rda because he was kod in that fight.

he left the ufc on a 2 fight win streak  and a 11-3 record in the Ufc with only losses to champions and a short notice fight that went to decision.

can someone please tell me what indicates that he is washed up or over the hill or anything else? so let me guess if arlovski left right now and signed with bellator he would be a nomad and everything else but just 3 months ago he was a stud because he was in the ufc? am I getting this right?

there comes a point where credit needs to be given outside of the ufc and I think this is a perfect case.

does anyone on this forum really believe that ben Henderson is a nomad and not a top 10 fighter in the world???

Henderson like many ( most ) of the ufc fighters are not needle pushers. theres only a select few that really drive those ppv #s up

I don't believe Henderson is a top 10 fighter in any weight class right now.
Maybe if he stayed at LW.

just for the record this is our top 10 in lw

6. Anthony Pettis (100)

7. Al Iaquinta (53)

8. Edson Barboza (33)

9. Beneil Dariush (33)

10. Josh Thomson (27)


Henderson should be above dariiush, Thompson, iaquinta, and barboza but since we have him ranked in the ww I guess we couldn't do both divisions.

Well yeah, that's the point.
Not sure why he decided to try welter weight, but it was a conscious decision to do so.
He has to get ranked where he is fighting these days.

And let's not kid ourselves. Henderson has not had a decisive win over a top 10 fighter since 2012.

Sure, I'd rank him above Thomson too, but I don't have Thomson even sniffing the top 10. Both him and Melendez I would describe as being big UFC busts overall.

I don't understand why he is fighting at ww also because he has his best fights at lw and he is proven there.

id agree with you on Thompson but disagree with Melendez.

You don't think a 1-3 career record is a bust?
His only win was a boring, lackluster, out pointing decision over Diego Sanchez.

Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to downplay what Henderson has done. He had his time in the sun many years ago. However, it was relatively short lived. I was really just agreeing with the comment that the UFC tends to be good at letting guys go at the right time.

I don't know if I would call that a bust. he lost 2 championship fights
and a bullshit split decision against alvarez

people could make the argument that he should be 3-1 in his career because the alvarez fight he was robbed imo and the Henderson fight could have gone either way.

boring lackluster fight against diego?? are you being serious? that was an epic fight

start the video at 1 minute and keep it on mute

drainbamage wrote:

trigg, not to open up this whole discussion again but I don't understand why you posted that.

Henderson was a top 5 ranked ufc fighter in the lw division and a top 10 ranked ww fighter in the ufc
after 30 fights always at the most elite level of fighting he has never been handled like that with the exception of rda because he was kod in that fight.

he left the ufc on a 2 fight win streak  and a 11-3 record in the Ufc with only losses to champions and a short notice fight that went to decision.

can someone please tell me what indicates that he is washed up or over the hill or anything else? so let me guess if arlovski left right now and signed with bellator he would be a nomad and everything else but just 3 months ago he was a stud because he was in the ufc? am I getting this right?

there comes a point where credit needs to be given outside of the ufc and I think this is a perfect case.

does anyone on this forum really believe that ben Henderson is a nomad and not a top 10 fighter in the world???

You must've misunderstood what I meant by "nomad".
I meant he's a divisional nomad, not an organizational nomad. He was a pretty good LW fighter and a middling WW fighter, but at the time he left the UFC, he was not great at either. He didn't really have a home in either division because he wasn't elite in either division when he left for Bellator, which would make him a fighter with no real divisional home, or a "nomad".

And I again brought this up because it's pertinent to the conversation. my whole basis in that debate was that Bendo was a castoff who's best days are behind him and he was let go at the right time for the UFC.
This fight proves that to be true to at least some degree.

you see I'm looking at it in a different way because I haven't seen Henderson decline. at least not in my eyes ( before his last fight ) I see a guy who brings it and could fight in both weight classes and even if he isn't champ he will be a top 10 fighter in either class more so the lw division.

so when he fought the other night I was really interested to see how a bellator champ will handle a guy like Henderson and man that was a brutal fight. I really do believe that koreshkov is a very underrated fighter and I hope bellator acquires more talent to allow him to test himself. I think Henderson was a great start point and now I cnt wait for rory McDonald to go to bellator!!!

Yeah that's the flip side point of view I guess and it could be interpreted that way.

That's not how I see it though.

Maybe Koreshkov is being underrated by every legitimate and established MMA site when they rank him in the 10-20 range, and he's actually one of the top 5 WWs in the world and somehow nobody noticed.

Or maybe Ben Henderson has seen better days and the UFC let him walk because they knew that. We'll find out soon enough.
If he keeps losing- especially to guys who aren't even ranked in the top 10- that whole "Ben Henderson is still an elite fighter" idea is only gonna work for so long.

drainbamage wrote:

start the video at 1 minute and keep it on mute

That's my bad.... that is good.

Unfortunately, Diego Sanchez is still your best career UFC victory.

I don't know how to properly assess guys like Melendez. They seem like world beaters beating up cans in a lesser org. Then they lose (maybe close fights), but are given credit for losses since they were against champions.

As for why Thomson is still in the top 10, I have no clue.
Maybe those still ranking him high (Hi Chrom) can chime in on that. I will certainly concede that Melendez should be ranked higher than Thomson (but still not top 10 based on his resume over the past few years).

Triggerman99 wrote:

Yeah that's the flip side point of view I guess and it could be interpreted that way.

That's not how I see it though.

Maybe Koreshkov is being underrated by every legitimate and established MMA site when they rank him in the 10-20 range, and he's actually one of the top 5 WWs in the world and somehow nobody noticed.

Or maybe Ben Henderson has seen better days and the UFC let him walk because they knew that. We'll find out soon enough.
If he keeps losing- especially to guys who aren't even ranked in the top 10- that whole "Ben Henderson is still an elite fighter" idea is only gonna work for so long.

I thought he was an elite fighter until the other night. I want to see him fight a few lw because I feel that they have a decent staff of fighters in that division and we will see if he is really washed up.

stock wrote:

drainbamage wrote:

start the video at 1 minute and keep it on mute

That's my bad.... that is good.

Unfortunately, Diego Sanchez is still your best career UFC victory.

I don't know how to properly assess guys like Melendez.  They seem like world beaters beating up cans in a lesser org.  Then they lose (maybe close fights), but are given credit for losses since they were against champions.

As for why Thomson is still in the top 10, I have no clue.
Maybe those still ranking him high (Hi Chrom) can chime in on that.  I will certainly concede that Melendez should be ranked higher than Thomson (but still not top 10 based on his resume over the past few years).

lol I was like man that fight was a Mexican bloodbath..
but I do see what you are saying about his wins.

i personally think he is top 10 . I think he has all the tools - great chin, cardio, bjj, striking, and heart. he always brings it and he has some notable wins. I'm not 100% sold on him in the ufc but when he is back from his suspension he will have a lot of tests thrown at him and I think its a time will tell deal just like Henderson.

I would love to see khabib fight Melendez. that would be sick

Thomson has pretty much only lost to top tier guys by SD and has wins after that... my top 10's are a bit robotic. I had him at #9 after losing to Bendo but he stayed active, others fell off and went inactive, while he went up to #8 due to others said losses and inactivity (even though he did lose in this time) and then he earned a few W's so he slowly climbed back up to 6. Admittedly, probably a bit high of a rank, but I think he is still top 10 material either way.