Now that Anderson Silva has been knocked out (see it here), all bets are off.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight number one contender, Johny Hendricks, is on a mission to replicate Chris Weidman's upset win at UFC 162, when "Bigg Rigg" challenges reigning 170-pound kingpin Georges St. Pierre for the division title.
The only difference?
Hendricks wants St. Pierre to have his hands up, so he can get knocked out "the right way," and not because "Rush" was being lazy or careless, according to comments he made over at MMA Fight Corner:
"You train, you do everything, you've done everything that you could and to know that your boss believes in you that you can beat Georges St. Pierre means everything. That's just confidence that you can shock the world. The only difference is Georges won't have his hands down. I want to knock him out, but I want his hands to be up. I want to punch people's hands and I wanna lay him out the right way. The only people who know my true power are people that I've wrestled and that's about it. That's what I'm excited to bring out is that kind of intensity, that kind of power that I haven't shown the world yet, and I plan to do that in November. That's the hardest part is stepping in against a guy who's had the belt since forever ago. The most important thing is that I believe that's my belt. He's just holding onto it for me."
Time will tell.
Hendricks will try to become the first person since Matt Serra to plant the Canadian, who leaves the comforts of Montreal for a title defense at the upcoming UFC 167 pay-per-view (PPV) event, expected to go down on Nov. 16, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada (more details).
So much for the hometown advantage.