Former UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks caused a bit of a whirlwind when he proclaimed that UFC 207 could be his last fight.
Hendricks is set to meet Neil Magny at the December card and appeared on a recent edition of “Submission Radio” to further clarify what he meant by that talk.
“No. No. I’m not gonna be the guy that just fights to make money. The money aspect is whatever. If want to fight, I want to be the best I can be. And in those last two performances, I told my wife, I said, ‘if I have another fight like that, I’m done. I’m not performing to my best ability,’ and I really do believe that and I think I got over that hump. I think the hump was that I was just going through the motions. I was okay with where I was at, I was satisfied. I was satisfied with being a UFC champion, I was satisfied with being in the top ten. You can’t be satisfied in this sport. The only thing I can think of is I want to win, I want to win, I want to win. I’m done being satisfied. And if I go out there and I lose another fight because I don’t pull the trigger, I don’t fight to my full potential, well guess what – I’m done and I’m not going to continue to do that and put my wife through me being gone a lot and all those kinds of things, just to do something that I enjoy. Because realistically, yeah I love training, I love training the art of Mixed Martial Arts, I love learning, but I can do that without getting punched in the face (laughs). But I think with the mindset I have right now, retiring is not in my future. Cause right now a lot of people are probably saying, ‘is Johny washed up? Is he done? Is he going to lose this fight and he’s going to retire?’ Right? That’s probably what a lot of people are thinking, ‘Johny was something’. But I still believe I can be, and I had to get that mind frame back. I had to get that mind frame back, that hey, I still have things I can do with this sport, I can still go out there and win a championship. Now how do I do this? By busting your butt every day, waking up sore, can’t move. That’s what it takes, in my mind, and that’s what I’m doing right now. There’s times that you wake up, your body’s aching so bad, but I just look at myself and I say, what do you want to be? Do you want to be a guy who loses this fight because you’re tired and sore, or do you want to be the guy that everybody goes, ‘dang, he made a 180’? And that’s really what I’m trying to do right now. I’m trying to tell myself that I can make that 180, this is how I do it.”
“Whenever I go out there and I don’t fight the best that I can or perform the best that I can, I take it to heart and I question, ‘do you want to do this’. I don’t need somebody to tell me, ‘hey Johny, you didn’t look that good’. Yeah, I do have those guys, but they usually soften up because I’m like, ‘dude I looked like crap’. There’s no way that I would’ve won a championship fighting the way that I just had in my last two fights. And I’m not saying nothing against those two guys, the other two guys were tough. But in my mind, I’m just not fighting the way I know I can. And that’s what I have to get back to. And guess what? If I can’t, then it’s time to say, hey, Johny you tried it and it’s just not in your path. Maybe the good lord has something else planed for me. And that’s really my faith is that the good lord blessed me with a lot of things and he blessed me with two national titles, he blessed me with a UFC championship and if I never get back to it, the good lord is gonna lead me in another way where I can reach kids and maybe I can turn them into what I was. That’s what I’m looking at.”
Hendricks, who is just 33 years old, has dropped three of his last four around a decision win vs. Matt Brown. He opened his MMA career going 16-2, including a win over Robbie Lawler to claim the vacant title.
Former UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks caused a bit of a whirlwind when he proclaimed that UFC 207 could be his last fight.
Hendricks is set to meet Neil Magny at the December card and appeared on a recent edition of “Submission Radio” to further clarify what he meant by that talk.
“No. No. I’m not gonna be the guy that just fights to make money. The money aspect is whatever. If want to fight, I want to be the best I can be. And in those last two performances, I told my wife, I said, ‘if I have another fight like that, I’m done. I’m not performing to my best ability,’ and I really do believe that and I think I got over that hump. I think the hump was that I was just going through the motions. I was okay with where I was at, I was satisfied. I was satisfied with being a UFC champion, I was satisfied with being in the top ten. You can’t be satisfied in this sport. The only thing I can think of is I want to win, I want to win, I want to win. I’m done being satisfied. And if I go out there and I lose another fight because I don’t pull the trigger, I don’t fight to my full potential, well guess what – I’m done and I’m not going to continue to do that and put my wife through me being gone a lot and all those kinds of things, just to do something that I enjoy. Because realistically, yeah I love training, I love training the art of Mixed Martial Arts, I love learning, but I can do that without getting punched in the face (laughs). But I think with the mindset I have right now, retiring is not in my future. Cause right now a lot of people are probably saying, ‘is Johny washed up? Is he done? Is he going to lose this fight and he’s going to retire?’ Right? That’s probably what a lot of people are thinking, ‘Johny was something’. But I still believe I can be, and I had to get that mind frame back. I had to get that mind frame back, that hey, I still have things I can do with this sport, I can still go out there and win a championship. Now how do I do this? By busting your butt every day, waking up sore, can’t move. That’s what it takes, in my mind, and that’s what I’m doing right now. There’s times that you wake up, your body’s aching so bad, but I just look at myself and I say, what do you want to be? Do you want to be a guy who loses this fight because you’re tired and sore, or do you want to be the guy that everybody goes, ‘dang, he made a 180’? And that’s really what I’m trying to do right now. I’m trying to tell myself that I can make that 180, this is how I do it.”
“Whenever I go out there and I don’t fight the best that I can or perform the best that I can, I take it to heart and I question, ‘do you want to do this’. I don’t need somebody to tell me, ‘hey Johny, you didn’t look that good’. Yeah, I do have those guys, but they usually soften up because I’m like, ‘dude I looked like crap’. There’s no way that I would’ve won a championship fighting the way that I just had in my last two fights. And I’m not saying nothing against those two guys, the other two guys were tough. But in my mind, I’m just not fighting the way I know I can. And that’s what I have to get back to. And guess what? If I can’t, then it’s time to say, hey, Johny you tried it and it’s just not in your path. Maybe the good lord has something else planed for me. And that’s really my faith is that the good lord blessed me with a lot of things and he blessed me with two national titles, he blessed me with a UFC championship and if I never get back to it, the good lord is gonna lead me in another way where I can reach kids and maybe I can turn them into what I was. That’s what I’m looking at.”
Hendricks, who is just 33 years old, has dropped three of his last four around a decision win vs. Matt Brown. He opened his MMA career going 16-2, including a win over Robbie Lawler to claim the vacant title.
