Johny Hendricks believes he didn’t show up to fight at UFC 200, and he’s having a difficult time trying to figure out why.
For the first time in his professional career, Hendricks is riding a two-fight skid after losing tow Stephen Thompson and Kelvin Gastelum, the latter at the landmark UFC 200 card.
Hendricks was outworked by the rising welterweight over three rounds and dropped a unanimous decision, with the judges scoring the contest 29-28, 30-27, 30-27 against Bigg Rigg.
With his gaze focused solely on reclaiming the belt he lost in a razor-thin split decision to Robbie Lawler, Hendricks was perplexed by his lacklustre performance against Gastelum, as he explained to Megan Olivi backstage at UFC 200.
“Would you call it a performance? He was the better fighter, I didn’t fight. Is that the guy who won the belt? Is that a guy who would even be considered to win a belt? No.”
“Right now, I got to take a step back, talk to the family, talk to the wife, see what’s next. That was so pathetic. I’m my worst critic, I’d give that a D.”
Although he paid his respects to Gastelum for getting the win, Hendricks admitted that he suffered from some sort of mental paralysis during the bout which caused the power-puncher to become gun-shy against the 24-year-old.
“I was out there. I saw every punch I could land. I didn’t throw, I didn’t kick. That’s probably the worst I’ve seen myself fight in a long time. Nothing against Kelvin Gastelum. Kelvin Gastelum did a great job. I’ll never take anything away from him. I like him, he’s a good guy. I’ll never talk trash about him. It’s just that I didn’t fight.”
“I feel so bad for my coaches. They have a great athlete and they probably and he’s probably the worst showing they could ever do for them. That’s what hurts me more than anything, is that they’ve prepared me, I have prepared myself the best I could and I go out there and look like a newborn.”
Hendricks rose to prominence in the UFC as an elite wrestler with one-punch knockout power, putting high-level fighters like Jon Fitch and Martin Kampmann en route to getting his title shot against the great Georges St-Pierre. Bigg Rigg went the distance with GSP at UFC 167, but lost a split decision to the welterweight champion, despite inflicting way more damage during the scrap.
St-Pierre vacated the belt shortly after the fight and Hendricks went on to beat Lawler in a closely contested war to win the vacant strap, before losing it in the rematch. He believes that Johny Hendricks that went five rounds with GSP and twice went the distance with Robbie Lawer was nowhere to be found on Saturday night.
“I need to take a step back, it might be a month, two months, three months, hell , I don’t know. I need to decide do I want to fight. I love fighting. Getting in that Octagon, for some reason, makes me so happy, but to perform like that…”
“If I go out there and I fight hard against Robbie Lawler, supposedly win, but I lose, I’m not hard on myself. I’m pissed at myself because there’s so much more crap I could have done. I give that a 40% effort.”
“Gosh, damn, there’s just so much crap, so much offence that I left out on the table. I saw every bit of it too. ‘Oh there it is, there it is. You’re not doing nothing.’ You know, I’m an idiot. That’s genuinely what it boils down to. I’m an idiot in that fight.”
WATCH: Even Johny Hendricks couldn't live with the hottest new welterweight prospect https://t.co/BB2T88O3VR
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) February 7, 2016
Hendricks weighed in 0.25 lbs over the 171 lb limit at the weigh-ins, but he firmly denied that the cut had anything to do with what happened inside the Octagon. He vowed to take some time out and weigh up his options to see if he even wants to continue his fighting career, because the last thing he wants to happen is to see himself become a promotional gatekeeper.
“What do I got to do to get that fire back? I don’t know. Right now, I’m just so frustrated at myself, so pissed off. It’s disappointing when I know I could have won. I should have won, and I go out there looking like a pathetic newborn trying to fight to fight Kelvin Gastelum.”
“Oh God, I didn’t fight like I wanted to. You’re just sitting here going, ‘Man, God, why didn’t you fire? Why didn’t you do this? Why didn’t you do that?’ My coaches are yelling, and I’m sitting there listening to them and I’m like, ‘Fire Johnny, fire! Oh, you’re weak, you’re weak.’ That’s what was going through my head, I was being weak out there.”
With just two wins in his last six fights, Hendricks will be hoping that he can rediscover that fire that once propelled him all the way to the top of the rankings before his next contest under the UFC banner.
