Well-traveled mixed martial arts (MMA) veteran, Johny Hendricks, tried to keep his combat sports career afloat by transitioning to the world of bare knuckle boxing after parting ways with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) back in summer 2018.
To say it hasn’t gone well would be like saying Dana White has a slightly receding hairline. Not only was Hendricks taken behind the woodshed by Dakota Cochrane last November, “Bigg Rigg” was stiffed by the promotion when it came time to collect his purse.
And now he wants some answers from former World Bare Knuckle Fighting Federation (WBKFF) President, Bas Rutten, like how much the retired Dutchman knew about the fragile finances ahead of the Wyoming event.
“Wow, when some ignorant people believe this, I don’t really care, but once a fighter believes that? Come on now Johny, not cool, you know I am there for you and the fighters,” Rutten wrote on Facebook. “I told you personally, AND EVERY OTHER FIGHTER IN WYOMING BEFORE THE SHOW (ask them all), that I saw the bank statements from Tom the owner and had ‘proof of funds’ before the show. Proof that he had enough money in the bank to pay the fighters because this was to me the most important thing of all.”
First rule of leadership? Everything is your fault!
Rutten counters by claiming he was never actually appointed president of the promotion and was simply hired as a commentator, which makes me wonder why he was privy to bank statements and hospital records, but I suppose we’ll find out tomorrow when “El Guapo” makes a Las Vegas radio appearance.
While it’s true that WBKFF owner Tomasz Stankiewicz is sitting in jail and has no access to money (or anything else), that doesn’t make the situation any less shitty for Hendricks, who held up his end of the deal and didn’t get paid for it. None of this other back-and-forth nonsense can take away from that very basic fact.
What can be done about it, remains to be seen.