Johny Hendricks Is Over UFC 167, Says He Will Finish Georges St-Pierre In Rematch
UFC 167’s Welterweight title challenger Johny Hendricks put in an amazing effort against one of the best fighters to grace MMA, but fell short on the judge’s scorecards. Georges St-Pierre walked away with the WW strap and left a trail of questions in the wake of the fight.
Hendricks appeared on tonight’s edition of The MMA Hour to clear up how he feels about the fight against St-Pierre:
“I’m over it, I’m looking forward to the future; that’s really all I can do at this point. I know I’m gonna get to fight him again if he doesn’t retire, and I’m gonna make sure it doesn’t go to the judges this time. I had him hurt in the second round and I will get the finish next time”
‘Rush’ was certainly stunned after eating a big left from Hendricks, but only he knows how close to being finished he was that night. If Hendricks had just turned up the heat, we may not be looking at the situation as it stands now. Regarding the hand wraps:
“It wasn’t rushed, but I knew the (hands) weren’t wrapped properly so it was my fault. By the third or fourth round each punch was very painful. But you have to carry on. After I threw one hard punch I could tell it wasn’t good enough. If I threw at 100% do I break my hand? I couldn’t do that.”
With most controversial fights in combat sports, there is usually a back story. It may well seem harsh that Hendricks felt unable to throw at full power; but in the fight game it never usually goes 0 smooth.
“I haven’t watched the fight on TV, I just don’t like watching myself fight. I love watching other people fight, but I let my coaches watch my fights….they are a great judge of (my fights) about whether I have won or lost. They have watched it 7 or 8 times and said he could have won two rounds, and I won three but it could have gone either way.”
No matter how controversial the decision, it is in the books now. Hendricks is doing well to look forward after just a week out from 167, with the kind of mental fortuity that Champions are made of.
“It was my first five round fight and I went out there and did good. I didn’t do great but I did good. I thought I was landing the better punches, after the first round he was banged up and there was nothing wrong with me. The judges have it hard, did you notice that I punched myself? I actually bruised my own jaw, I was like ‘GSP hits pretty hard’, I nicked him with an uppercut and (hit myself)”
One thing ‘Bigg Rigg’ should try to avoid in the next fight is hitting himself in the face. Apart from that, Hendricks certainly shocked the world, even in losing.
