Johny Hendricks Compares His MMA Wrestling to Georges St. Pierre’s

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Johny Hendricks, on “Beatdown,” comparing Georges St. Pierre’s MMA wrestling to his own:

“My game plan isn’t just straight wrestling. I want to be able to do everything. To do that, you’ve got to set up the hands first. That’s my goal. Whereas GSP, what he does is, he likes to jab you and he’ll jab you and get you playing the game. Because everybody doesn’t realize that he’s got a 76-inch reach for only 5-10. That’s a long reach. What happens is, he’ll start reaching out with that jab, real long, and watch how he extends his body. He forces you to have to close that distance. Whenever [an opponent] closes that distance, he can recognize it and he’ll shoot underneath it. That’s how he likes to use his wrestling. I like to try to strike, and if the legs open up, my body naturally does [takedowns]. That’s the difference. I know I have the wrestling and I know I have the wrestling defense. What I let my body do is, I’ll be going in for something -- I’ll be looking for punches and then all of a sudden, I see the legs and my body just naturally pulls to them because that’s what I’ve done for so many years. That’s the difference of my wrestling, using my striking to my wrestling, whereas GSP likes to bait people in.”

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