Author: By Thomas Gerbasi

PHILADELPHIA, August 6 – Alexander Gustafsson could have been rattled by a late change in opponents for his UFC 133 bout Saturday at Wells Fargo Center, but going from Vladimir Matyushenko to Matt Hamill proved to be no issue for Sweden’s “Mauler,” as he scored the biggest win of his career, halting Hamill in the second round.

The victory was Gustafsson’s third in a row, with each bout being finished before the final bell.

There was little sustained action in the opening round, with Hamill chasing and Gustafsson using every inch of the Octagon to keep his foe from getting his feet set for a takedown. Hamill was able to open a cut over Gustafsson’s right eye with a left hook, and though he didn’t press the action, “The Mauler” was able to tag Hamill at times over the course of the first five minutes.

Gustafsson began opening up in the second round, and his ability to avoid Hamill’s takedown attempts lifted his confidence even more. Add in Hamill’s increasing fatigue, and when Gustafsson turned up the heat and rocked “The Hammer” with a hard left, it was clear that the end would follow shortly thereafter, and it did, with a series of hard, unanswered ground strikes prompted referee Dan Miragliotta to halt the bout at 3:34 of the second round.

With the win, Gustafsson improves to 12-1; Hamill falls to 11-4.

MENDES vs. YAHYA

Unbeaten featherweight contender Chad Mendes wasn’t spectacular against submission ace Rani Yahya, but he was effective, as he moved to 11-0 with a shutout three round decision win.

Scores were 30-27 across the board.

There was little action of note to talk about in the opening round, save for a late surge in the final minute by Mendes that included a toss of Yahya (16-7) to the canvas, a right hand follow-up, and a thudding knee.

Mendes wasted no time getting to work in the second though, as he slammed Yahya to the mat with a crash, finally getting a reaction from the crowd. Yahya’s ground defense was good enough for him to get back to his feet, and he did the same thing after Mendes’ second takedown of the frame, but it was clear that there was no way the Brazilian was going to win a standup fight or a fight where he wasn’t putting Mendes on the canvas himself.

In the final round, Mendes continued to score takedowns, and Yahya tried to work his submission game from the bottom position, but the smothering attack of Mendes kept him from getting anything going. Once standing, Yahya was able to score a flash knockdown of Mendes with a balance shot, but the Californian made him pay with two takedowns before the final bell intervened.

MENJIVAR vs. PACE

Bantamweight veteran Ivan Menjivar showed off some impressive and varied striking and then survived a late surge from Nick Pace to score a close, but unanimous decision victory.

Scores were 29-28 across the board for Menjivar, who improves to 23-8; Pace falls to 6-2.

After a slow start, Pace livened things up with a takedown in the second half of the round which was followed by the Staten Islander taking Menjivar’s back. The veteran rose quickly, but nearly got caught in a rear naked choke before escaping in round one’s final moments.

Menjivar drilled Pace with leg kicks in round two, and with no return fire coming back, he threw in some punches and kicks upstairs for good measure. Midway through the round, Menjivar caught Pace against the fence and unleashed a barrage of shots, and even though he wasn’t able to finish, he was piling up the points on Pace, whose offense was non-existent until he scored a takedown with a little over a minute left.

Montreal’s Menjivar continued to press the action while standing in the final round, but the more urgent Pace finally got his chance to turn things around in the final minute when a knee to the head forced Menjivar to grab a rapidly swelling eye and backpedal to clear his head as the New Yorker followed, trying to finish. He didn’t get the desired result, and Menjivar was able to make it to the final bell and nab the decision win.

HENDRICKS vs. PIERCE

Welterweight prospects Johny Hendricks and Mike Pierce battled tooth and nail over the course of their 15 minute bout, with Hendricks emerging victorious via a grueling three round split decision.

Scores were 29-28 twice, and 28-29 for Hendricks, who ups his record to 11-1; Pierce falls to 12-4.

Hendricks had a strong first round, dominating the pace and location of the first five minutes, with his knees to the body being a particularly effective weapon.

After Hendricks took the first frame, Pierce came out fast in the second in an attempt to even the score, and he may have been successful thanks to a busier striking game and solid takedown defense. A late charge by Hendricks may have made that work for naught though.

Regardless of the scoring, both Hendricks and Pierce opened the third as the fight was on the line, and neither wanted to give up an inch of Octagon real estate in the process. Midway through the round, Pierce scored his first takedown of the bout, and some thudding strikes followed before Hendricks scrambled to his feet. The two immediately engaged again, with some dirty boxing taking place before Hendricks looked for his own takedown in the final minute, only to be turned away at the bell.

BROWN vs. PHAN

Featherweight veteran Mike Brown got his first UFC win with a close three round unanimous decision victory over Nam Phan, and it was a much needed one for the former WEC featherweight champ, who snapped a two fight losing streak in the process.

Scores were 29-27 and 29-28 twice.

Brown (25-8) was the aggressor from the start, shooting overhand rights in between looks for a takedown. In the second minute, Brown was able to get the bout to the mat and his quickly took Phan’s back. A series of unanswered punches to the head followed, but Phan weathered the pesky shots and found some semblance of daylight, eventually working his way to his feet. Brown scored another takedown before the bell though, putting an exclamation mark on a big round.

Phan (16-10) showed more urgency in round two as he tried to crawl out of the scoring hole he was in, and when he was able to get some distance, he tagged Brown with a series of hard and flush shots. With two minutes left, Brown was able to close the gap and get Phan to the mat again, but the Ultimate Fighter alum fought his way back to his feet and got loose. This wasn’t where Brown wanted to be, as Phan’s combinations and body punches were starting to take a toll.

Picking up where he left off in the second, Phan continued to drill Brown with hard shots, but this time the former WEC champ returned fire before tying his opponent up against the fence. When the two broke, the striking battle was more evenly matched, and throughout the rest of the bout, Brown made sure that he used his wrestling to take a slight advantage on the scorecards when necessary, and it sealed the victory for him.

NATAL vs. BRADLEY

Rafael Natal nabbed his first UFC win in three tries, outpointing late replacement Paul Bradley via unanimous decision in middleweight action.

Scores were 30-27 and 29-28 twice for Natal, who improves to 13-3-1; Bradley, who came in on short notice to replace Costa Philippou (who was promoted to the main card to fight Jorge Rivera) falls to 18-3 with 1 NC.

The two fighters were busy in the opening round, but any significant scoring done was by Natal, who bloodied Bradley’s nose and reddened his left leg with kicks. 

Picking up the pace in round two, Bradley and Natal got the crowd into it immediately with a wild slugging exchange. Natal, staggered, left himself open for a takedown and Bradley took it, but he was unable to do anything with it, allowing Natal to get back to his feet. From there, the fight settled back into a kickboxing match, with Natal pecking away and doing the bulk of the scoring. In the final stages of the round, Bradley scored another takedown, but didn’t have enough time to press his advantage.

There was some solid back and forth action in the final round, with Bradley pressing the action, but Natal countering well while he avoided his opponent’s takedown attempts. But in the second half of the round, fatigue was evident for Bradley, who nonetheless kept trying to get the takedown until the bout ended.

PHILADELPHIA, August 6 – In July of 2007, it was a stalemate. Four years later, Rashad Evans and Tito Ortiz met again, in the main event of UFC 133 at Wells Fargo Center Saturday night, and this time the judges weren’t necessary, as Evans looked to be in championship form in his first bout since May of 2010, as he stopped Ortiz in the second round.

Evans, the former UFC light heavyweight champion, is now expected to face the winner of September’s Jon Jones vs Quinton Jackson title bout in a quest to regain his crown, and he certainly looked ready for such a bout, but props must also be given to Ortiz, who took the bout on short notice after Phil Davis was pulled from the card due to injury, and stepped into the Octagon after fighting at UFC 132 in July against Ryan Bader.

Yet unlike that stirring win over Bader, tonight it was Evans who was not to be denied victory.

If you were looking for a contrast in pre-fight styles, you got a treat, as Evans was loose and relaxed and Ortiz appeared to be both tense and intense as he paced back and forth in the Octagon. But as soon as Bruce Buffer finished his introductions and referee Dan Miragliotta gave his instructions, both kicked into fight mode.

Ortiz opened up the bout with a kick, and the crowd was immediately in his corner as he looked to close the distance. Evans coolly walked the perimeter of the Octagon, waiting for Ortiz to make a mistake. In the second minute he shot the right hand that knocked out Chuck Liddell, but Ortiz avoided it, and with a little over three minutes left, “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” scored his first takedown. Evans stayed busy and made it up to his feet, and as he got Ortiz’ back against the fence, he unleashed lefts and rights to the head and body. Ortiz survived the assault and landed a couple hard knees, but Evans proceeded to pick Ortiz up and deliver an Octagon-rattling slam. From there, he got into side control and opened fire again, but the bell rang before Evans could score the spectacular finish.

Battered and bruised, but unbowed, Ortiz came out for round two, intent on turning things around after Evans’ late first round blitz. But after a confident Evans got his rhythm and fired off some strikes before attempting a takedown, Ortiz responded with the same guillotine choke that finished off Bader last month. After a few tense moments, Evans escaped and resumed with his ground and pound assault. Ortiz, trapped, tried to pull out all the stops to escape, but Evans’ pressure and attack was relentless, and there was little doubt that his only intention coming into tonight’s bout was to finish. At the four minute mark, Ortiz found some daylight and tried to lock up Evans’ leg, but “Suga” easily escaped and then delivered a knee to the solar plexus that hurt Ortiz badly. A follow up barrage of punches was just window dressing, and Miragliotta stopped the fight at the 4:48 mark.

Evans improves to 21-1-1 with the win; Ortiz falls to 17-9-1. Both men received $70,000 bonuses for what was named Fight of the Night.

UFC 133, which is headlined by the light heavyweight rematch between Rashad Evans and Tito Ortiz and the middleweight battle between Vitor Belfort and Yoshihiro Akiyama, airs live on Pay-Per-View from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at 9pm ET / 6pm PT. Fans can also tune in to Spike TV at 8pm ET / 5pm PT to see live UFC 133 preliminary bouts, and those who “like” the UFC on Facebook can see the rest of the prelim bouts at 5:45 pm ET / 2:45 pm PT.

MAIN EVENT
Rashad Evans (204.4) vs. Tito Ortiz (205.8)

PPV
Vitor Belfort (185.4) VS Yoshihiro Akiyama (184.6)
Dennis Hallman (170.8) VS Brian Ebersole (170.6)
Jorge Rivera (184.6) VS Costa Philippou (185.2)
Rory MacDonald (170.6) VS Mike Pyle (170.8)

SPIKE TV PRELIMS
Matt Hamill (206) VS Alex Gustafsson (204.4)
Chad Mendes (145.8) VS Rani Yahya (145.2)

ONLINE FIGHTS
Ivan Menjivar (138*) VS Nick Pace (135.8)
Johny Hendricks (170.8) VS Mike Pierce (171)
Mike Brown (146) VS Nam Phan (145)
Rafael Natal (185.4) vs. Paul Bradley (185.2)

*Pace has agreed to fight Menjivar at 138 pounds

The ritual never wavered. No matter who he was fighting, no matter what was going on in his life, Tito Ortiz would run around backstage on the lower concourse of the MGM Grand to warm up for the battle to come. But it wasn’t just to get his limbs loose, it was a reinforcement of why he was there in the first place, and as he ran, he heard the crowd in the arena and also heard the chatter from the people he passed.

“Everybody would be cheering me on,” said Ortiz.

“Yeah Tito”

“You’re gonna kill this guy.”

“Get him, get him.”

On July 2nd, as he waited for the call to face Ryan Bader later that night, he began his run, as usual. This time though, there was something different.

“Nobody said a word,” said Ortiz.

There was no secret as to what was at stake for the former light heavyweight champion. Winless in five fights since 2006, Ortiz knew that if he lost to Bader, his UFC career was over. If that was going to be the case, it would have been a harsh end for one of the sport’s superstars, but that’s what usually happens to pro athletes at the end.

Yet Ortiz, finally healthy, wasn’t about to go away quietly. And while the joke for some people is that they’re going to be late to their own funeral, “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” simply decided not to show up for his. He was in Las Vegas to win.

“I thought to myself, ‘Now it’s time to prove everyone right, and prove to all the people who had my back that I’m still here. It’s time to shine Tito.”

And shine he did. In one of the most stirring victories in the history of the sport, Ortiz, 36, turned back the clock with a brilliant performance against the dangerous Bader. Confident from the opening bell, Ortiz dropped Bader in the first round and then pounced, locking in a guillotine choke that forced the former Ultimate Fighter winner to tap out at the 1:56 mark. The MGM Grand crowd erupted, and the emotion was evident from Ortiz as well.

That wasn’t a case a few weeks before, when a talk with Ortiz left a different impression, one where he sounded like he was feeling the pressure of the UFC 132 bout being a win or go home scenario.

“When we talked, it was a different Tito,” he said. “I was having some home problems, a lot of people were being very negative towards me, and I couldn’t handle the negativity anymore.”

So after some soul searching, good coaching, and a change in attitude, he decided to turn things around, both personally and professionally.

“Life is too short to be negative and hateful, and it really came down to reinventing myself,” said Ortiz. “The training partners I had and the coaches I had, Mike Giovanni and Jason Parillo, are very positive, and they kinda restructured my mindset. I shut off the home life and was very stubborn and selfish to myself and my fight career. I’m too caring, I’m too giving, and I want to make sure everybody around me is having a great time, and I forgot about myself. So I relocated myself as the true champion that I really am and the true fighter I really am.”

“I stopped being negative and telling people who I was and what I do and this is the way it should be,” he continues. “I ignored the negative stuff and reinforced the positive stuff around me. It changed my outlook on life and my outlook on being a fighter. I really see it as I’m not the bad boy anymore. I’m the people’s champ.”

After his career-saving win over Bader, nobody doubted it, and it was time for Ortiz to take a well-deserved victory lap. But then Phil Davis entered the picture, and when he was injured and forced from his UFC 133 main event against Rashad Evans, Ortiz got a call from UFC President Dana White, asking him if he was interested in stepping in for a rematch with Evans, whom he fought to a three round draw with in 2007. At first, Ortiz turned down the offer, but after Lyoto Machida turned down the bout as well, Ortiz called White back up and took the fight. How did he explain that one to the family?

“Fighting is my life, so I just explained to them that we’ve got three more weeks and we’ll take our vacation,” he laughed.

It’s a gutsy move to say the least, but Ortiz is feeling so amped up from his win and from leaving the bout unscathed injury-wise that he’s raring to go on August 6th in Philadelphia.

“I told myself you’re healthy, you’re good, you’re in shape, and here’s an opportunity for you to shine,” said Ortiz, the living embodiment of striking while the iron is hot. “I’m living a Cinderella story right now, and I look at it that as 36 years old, Chuck Liddell was in his prime, Randy Couture was in his prime, and Tito Ortiz, I wasn’t in my prime at 25, 26. No. I’m in my prime at 36 years old. When I was 26, I was a young kid who was still learning and maturing. Now, I think I matured a lot. I talked to my mom recently and she saw my post fight press conference and she said ‘you’ve grown up so much. You’re a man now.’ She was surprised, and I understand that now. I came around completely.”

In more ways than one. And regardless of what happens on Saturday night, Ortiz’ return to the win column and to full health after three painful surgeries is the feel good story of 2011. Ask him if he ever thought he would be back here after going under the knife, and he’s blunt in his reply.

“Two months after (his second surgery) I’d get out of bed crying,” he said. “I was in such bad pain, I was like ‘what did I just do to myself?’”

After the third month though, Ortiz started to believe.

“I can do this,” he said. “And I never doubted myself; I just had injuries that kept me down, and in my mind I’m still a top five guy in the world. I never thought any different, even with my losses.”

Everybody loves a good comeback story. And this is a great one. But what else would you expect from the one and only Tito Ortiz?

“In boxing, they had Muhammad Ali, in professional wrestling they had Hulk Hogan, in mixed martial arts, they have Tito Ortiz,” he said.

Rashad Evans hasn’t set foot in the UFC Octagon for over a year, but if you’ve been on the internet for any length of time, it’s almost like he’s never left. That’s a testament to the former light heavyweight champion’s star power that he’s remained in the public eye in the time since his May 2010 win over Quinton “Rampage’ Jackson at UFC 114, but it’s also a product of an almost never-ending series of events that have comprised mixed martial arts’ version of an afternoon soap opera.

Whether it was the knee injury that forced him from a UFC 128 title fight against “Shogun” Rua, his feud with the man who replaced him against Rua, current 205-pound champ Jon Jones, or his subsequent split with the Jackson’s MMA camp, Evans has not lacked for attention over the last 15 months. So how does he cope with the constant stress?

With a smile, of course.

“I guess smiling and laughing has been my gift to just really not take things too serious and don’t get so caught up in the identity of the fighter that you forget about who you are and allow this to really affect you in your personal life,” he said. “It is trying and it is tough because I want to be the champion and I do want to fight for the belt, but at the same time, I have to put that on the backburner just so that I save something for me and who I really am and I don’t get caught up in the whirlwind of everything else that happens that comes along with the sport.”

And no whirlwind could compare to the hurricane that broke out when he and Jones, former training partners, took aim at each other. It’s a sudden rivalry that took on a life of its own, with neither fighter willing to back down. And while the older Evans thought about stepping back from the increasingly personal warfare, that idea didn’t last too long, as he resumed firing his own verbal bullets again.

“Sometimes I think about not talking, but then I just don’t feel like myself,” he said. “If somebody says something to me, it’s so hard for me to not say anything at all and to let it ride. I’m the kind of person that if you say something to me and I don’t agree with what you’re saying, I’m gonna let you know that I don’t agree, and I’m gonna say something about it. I’m an easygoing person, but at the same time, if you piss me off, I’m gonna let you know something, and that’s how I roll and I don’t want to change that. I’m gonna be better when I get older (Laughs), but right now, sometimes I open my mouth a little too much.”

Well, if anything, it kept Evans engaged in the fight game as his knee healed, and when he was greenlighted to get back into the gym, he did so with a new team fighting out of the Imperial Athletics gym in Boca Raton, Florida. Dubbing themselves “The Blackzilians,” Evans’ squad includes Anthony Johnson, Jorge Santiago, Mike Van Arsdale, Sergio “Babu”, Diogenes Assahida, JZ Cavalcante, and many more. And fortunately for him, the gym has become home, and his training partners his new family.

“It was a little bit trying at first because I was a bit afraid that things weren’t gonna gel together,” said Evans. “We had such a dynamic thing in Albuquerque (with the Jackson team) and such great chemistry and energy there, and I didn’t think you could replicate it anywhere else. I come here and it happened again. We had something that was built on the foundation which the Jackson team was created, and it was just about pure intentions. And that’s the recipe right there. We have a bunch of guys on my team that have nothing but pure intentions about training with each other and getting better and leaving all the stupid things that tear gyms apart behind and having a family atmosphere. We all have the same manager, Glenn Robinson, and he brought all of us together, and through him we’re all connected, so we all spend a lot of time together, and when there’s a fight, we all come together like a family.”

That family has been by Evans’ side as he got over the disappointment of seeing Phil Davis fall out of this Saturday’s UFC 133 main event, and then found his groove again with the insertion of Tito Ortiz into the headlining slot alongside him. And at this point, Evans is just happy to get a fight. To get it against Ortiz, who he battled to a three round draw with in 2007 is an added perk.

“I had moved on,” said Evans when asked if he had given up on the possibility of a rematch with Ortiz. “We went in two different ways as far as the trajectory of our careers, so I just gave up hope that this fight would even happen. He went winless for like five years, so I didn’t think it would happen. He was almost out of the UFC.”

But in July, Ortiz, who hadn’t won a bout since 2006, turned back the clock and scored a huge first round submission win over Ryan Bader at UFC 132. Did the win shock Evans?

“It shocked me that he beat Bader,” he admits. “I think it shocked him that he beat Bader. (Laughs) I think it took him weeks to realize that he actually beat Bader, but yeah, it definitely shocked me. And now it’s funny how everybody’s like ‘Oh my God, Tito Ortiz is back. He’s back!’ And everybody’s buggin’ out about it. That’s the funny thing about it, and they hate me so much that they want Tito to win just because Tito Ortiz is back. Hey, it’s a great story and you couldn’t write a better script than that – a guy who’s gonna be out of the UFC now has a chance to put himself in position to be right back in the mix again.”

Unfortunately, with Ortiz’ win propelling him back into the spotlight, Evans has been handed the bad guy role again. And despite being one of the game’s good guys, he’s come to accept that for some people, he’ll always be the villain.

“Yeah, I’ve come to accept it,” he said. “I’m so far from that kind of person that people think I am, and it used to bother me, but now I’m to the point where it’s like ‘whatever, the people will believe what they want to believe.’ They got a chance to glimpse who I am on The Ultimate Fighter show and they saw the kind of person I am, but they still want to believe that I’m evil or mean or whatever, and it’s just the way it is, and I can’t change that. People need people like me. They need somebody to root against.”

There are people are on the 31-year old’s side though, and they include a lot of his peers, many of whom now look up to him as one of the seasoned vets of the sport. Evans is flattered that his fellow fighters see him in that light.

“It is kinda crazy because I remember being in that position and looking to Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz and those guys and seeing them as vets in the game,” he said. “But now, I’m the guy, and it’s crazy to think that people are looking at me in that light, but I appreciate it too, because that means that the things I’ve done and the choices I’ve made weren’t in vain. If the choices I made helped somebody else make a better choice for themselves in the future, then the choice that I made was worth it.”

Any regrets?

“No. I’m happy where I am right now. And to change anything would change who I am right now.”

Who Rashad Evans is right now is a former world champion who is well aware that he is one victory over Tito Ortiz away from a shot at regaining his crown. The question is, given his history with both Jones and Jackson, does he have a preference if he gets to fight the winner of their September bout?

“I would like to fight Jon, just because I really want to be the one to beat him,” said Evans. “But I wouldn’t mind seeing Rampage put some humbleness into this kid. He is so arrogant and cocky and it’s just getting worse and worse as time goes by. If they don’t let me get a chance to put him down, I just want somebody to sit him down and let him know that you’re not the gift to MMA. There’s been many like you. There’s been BJ Penn, there’s been Georges St-Pierre, there’s been Vitor Belfort, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture. And none of those guys had the game figured out to the point where they couldn’t be beat. At one point they were all touchable. Everybody’s touchable, and he’s no different and I want him to be touched. I want him to know he’s not untouchable.”

But first, there’s Ortiz.

It was the wrestling equivalent of beating Georges St-Pierre, BJ Penn, Jon Fitch, Nick Diaz, Carlos Condit, Jake Shields, Josh Koscheck, and Thiago Alves in succession, but that was par for the course for two-time defending NCAA champion Johny Hendricks as he tore through the National duals in 2007.

“I wrestled 10 matches, and out of those 10, I wrestled two through eight,” said Oklahoma State University standout. “I wrestled almost everybody in the top 10 and I won every match.”

Needless to say, the spectacular run drained him, and he needed a break. But there are no breaks for wrestlers, especially during the season, so that was simply out of the question.

“At that point, I was like ‘I have to get away.’ I needed to get away from wrestling for a couple days and clear my mind,” recalled Hendricks. “If they couldn’t beat me at that point, they’re not gonna beat me anywhere they want to. But I ended up not being able to take the time off that I needed because coach (John) Smith just couldn’t say ‘hey Johny, go away for two days,’ and then everybody else still has to practice. If I could have gotten a week off from everything, I think I might have done some things differently, but that was something that I learned from.”

What he learned was that sometimes too much of a good thing can become a bad thing. Hendricks sailed to the finals of the NCAA tournament again that year, this time with a 56-0 record. But in match 57, he lost to Iowa’s Mark Perry, spoiling his perfect season and his quest for a third National title. When it was over, he was lost.

“I prayed for like two weeks straight,” he said of the days after his defeat against Perry. “I was like ‘what am I gonna do with my life?’ So every night I prayed. I said ‘I’m too young to stop competing, just show me something that I can do.’ Within two weeks (Team Takedown’s) Ted Ehrhardt called me. I went out to Vegas, I got knocked out (in sparring by Phil Baroni), I woke up the next day, and I was like ‘I want to do it.’ (Laughs) Who gets knocked out completely cold, can’t remember the rest of their day, and you wake up the next morning and say ‘hey, I want to do this.’ That’s so weird.”

At least he said it. But all joking aside, mixed martial arts was a natural for the native of Ada, Oklahoma, and by September of 2007 he was making his pro debut with a third round TKO of Victor Rackliff. It’s been practically all smooth sailing since then, with the only hiccup being a 2010 decision loss to Rick Story. But the most important thing for Hendricks thus far is that he took the lessons from his wrestling experience and applied them to MMA. And it had nothing to do with what happens in the gym.

“There’s always times in my camp when I’m like ‘oh my gosh, I’ve done this (competing) for 23-24 years of my life and I’m tired of cutting weight,’” he said. “Of course those days hit me, and what I gotta do is come home and say (to my wife) ‘honey, we’re not gonna talk about fighting; let’s just go do something.’ And then after we go do something, I’m like ‘okay, let’s just talk about life.’ You’re constantly training, and when you’re constantly preparing for something, you need that kind of break, that mental lapse where you can say ‘today, we’re not gonna do anything. We’re gonna talk video games, we’re gonna talk hunting, we’re gonna talk about anything but what I’ve got coming up.’”

“If you live and breathe fighting, and you do it on top of that, you’re gonna hit a point in your life where you’re like ‘oh my gosh, I gotta do something else,’” Hendricks continues. “You have to keep yourself in check. I love the sport so much, that if I eat, breathe, and think about it constantly, I know that you can get burned out.”

Aiding him in his quest, Hendricks and his Team Takedown squadmates moved their homebase from Las Vegas to Dallas, putting the 27-year old close to his wife and daughter. It’s made a monumental difference in his life.

“It’s everything,” he said. “I get to come home, my wife’s happy, my daughter’s happy, and it makes a better environment to come home to. In Vegas, we were excited to fight because that meant we got to come home and see our family. (Laughs) And as people know now, I’m an outdoorsman. I love hunting and fishing, and I love the country. And in Vegas, there’s none of that. Now, I can drive 10 minutes from where I live right now and be in the country. I can be out there and I don’t hear no cars, I don’t hear nothing. All I do is look at stars and I can space out. I like being out there in the middle of nowhere.”

Hendricks’ latest passion is bow fishing, which, as you can probably tell by the name, requires shooting fish with a special bow and arrow. And yeah, you guessed it, it’s not easy.

“I would say it’s 50 percent luck that you hit it and 50 percent that you’re a good shot,” laughs Hendricks, who nonetheless can find parallels between bow fishing and fighting.

“There are a lot of sports out there that are like that,” he said. “On some of the better fighters, once you get up to where I’m starting to get, with the last couple of fighters that I fought, you have to really set up everything. In bow fishing, whenever you pull back on the bow, you gotta make sure everything’s lined up perfect to get the kill shot. And you might miss. You might set up a shot three or four times, but the more you try, the better you get and the more success that you’re gonna have. So in fighting, let’s say the hook’s just not landing. Well, I just can’t stop using the hook; I gotta set it up better.”

The quest to continually learn, pick up new things, and figure out the best way to get the best performance out of himself is an admirable trait. It’s also one that forces you to take ego out of the equation, something many believed Hendricks would never be able to do. But as he points out, the path he’s always followed is to be one way in the gym and another in competition. And that one way in the gym was to be humble.

“That’s the way I was in wrestling in the room,” he said. “I wasn’t that way out on the mat. And I’m also not that way when I fight. I’ve gotta walk in there with confidence and I’ve gotta believe that I can beat that guy across from me, and what better way to prove it than by being in his face from the start, and making him wish that he wasn’t in the ring with you or on the mat with you.”

“My senior year, I couldn’t win a match,” he continues. “My senior year I would leave practice mad every day because I just couldn’t win. I could beat the lower level guys, but my backup, I couldn’t beat him. But that’s what keeps that drive. If you constantly win, what do you when you go home? Do I need to run? I keep winning, it’s not a big deal. But if you go home and you get beat every day, you’re gonna do a little bit extra because you’re getting your butt kicked. And you want that to stop.”
 
Mixed martial arts is no different for him, so when he lost to Story last December, he didn’t brush it off as simply a bad night and hit the after party. He had more important matters to tend to.

“I tell people all the time, what makes a champion? It’s not who holds the belt. A champion in my mind is somebody who comes in every day, they give 110 percent, and if they lose, how do they carry themselves? Of course they’re gonna be upset, but they’re gonna be humble and say ‘hey, he was the better fighter.’ But with saying that, you also have to be able to improve yourself. So my whole thought process was that as soon as that fight (with Story) was over, I went upstairs and watched that fight. And I watched the fight. And I watched the fight. I didn’t go to bed until like 2:30 in the morning because I watched that fight like nine times – stop, rewind, what happened here? So with that loss, Rick Story made me a better fighter. And that’s what I wanted. You can’t lose and think you’re gonna stay the same. Once you lose, you gotta find your flaws.”

And to aid him in finding them, he invited Story to train with him. Story accepted. So did another past opponent, TJ Grant, who has helped Hendricks prepare for his UFC 133 bout with Mike Pierce this Saturday in Philadelphia. For the Oklahoman, it’s just part of the process. He bounced back from his lone loss with a Knockout of the Night win over TJ Waldburger in March, and now he’ll look to keep the momentum going against Pierce. But one thing’s for sure – win or lose, he won’t make the same mistake twice.

“You gotta be able to adapt,” he said. “One thing Rick Story exploited on me is that I went in there with a striker mentality, instead of being able to adapt on the fly. I don’t know how Pierce is gonna come out. Is he gonna come out just trying to knock me out in the first round, or is gonna try to take me down? I gotta be able to adapt to whichever one he wants to do. If he wants to strike, I’m more than happy to strike with anybody. And if he wants to do the wrestling game, I’ve got to be able to adapt on the fly.”

Just like shooting fish with an arrow.