Johny Hendricks: It Makes Perfect Sense For Me To Get Title Shot

When Johny Hendricks defeated Robbie Lawler at UFC 171 to become the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight champion, many wondered if “Bigg Rigg” could reign for a decent amount of time. He ended up losing his title in a rematch with “Ruthless” at UFC 181.

Since losing gold, Hendricks has been waiting for another opportunity. The former 170-pound title holder defeated Matt Brown by unanimous decision back in March 2015. Lawler just came off a brutal TKO win over Rory MacDonald to retain his championship at UFC 189.

Hendricks appeared on The MMA Hour to explain why he should be next in line for a title shot:

“I figured it makes perfect sense. He’s (Lawler) going to get some time to relax, let his body heal. Let’s do it. All I can do is keep doing what I need to do. Hopefully I get that call soon and they tell me it’s gonna happen.”

Despite Lawler needing some time off to heal, Hendricks says it doesn’t have an impact on his plans to compete for the title. In fact, “Bigg Rigg” says he’s making some changes and enhancements to up his game in that timeframe:

“Realistically, look at my last couple of years. I fight in March. It’s either the 14th, 15th, or 16th and I always fight in either late November or early December. It goes perfectly with my timeline because there’s things I can get better on. I’m making tweaks and now that I know in my eyes that it’s going to be Robbie Lawler, we’re already training for that.”

A few days ago, Hendricks made a Twitter post campaigning for the next welterweight title shot. He says in today’s world of mixed martial arts (MMA), his actions inside the Octagon may not be enough:

“I know that I’m the number one contender, but there’s always other things that go on. I always let my fighting do the talking, but maybe the day has come where you can’t do that. It is (frustrating) in a sense because I never want to degrade somebody or do those kind of things because it’s not my style. If I have to, it’s pretty easy to do that.”

Of course if Tyron Woodley has his way, Hendricks will need to have one more fight to claim his title shot.