We do a lot of thinking about family around the holiday season. In the MMA world, fighters often find it hard to balance the amount of time they want to spend with their family and the amount of time they know they need to train.

During his recent two-fight losing streak, former UFC welterweight Johny Hendricks wrestled with this dilemma. He had just had his fourth child and was looking to be home more often. Add that to the fact that a win over Matt Brown, in March of 2015, didn’t materialize into the title shot that he thought it would, and he found himself without the motivation he needed.

I was in the mood of ‘let’s just fight this fight and see what happens. If I win, that’s cool,’ said Hendricks during a recent appearance on the Top Turtle MMA Podcast. Last fight camp I was training once a day and I was training only four days a week – that is all I cared about it.

While his motivation waned due to all of these factors, perhaps not coincidentally, he also failed to make weight for a potential number 1 contender fight with Tyron Woodley in October of 2015 and the fight was canceled. It has been a rough stretch of time for the former champion but he still feels the fire to get back to the top one day. Currently in camp for a fight with Neil Magny at UFC 207 on December 30, Hendricks seems to have found the spark to get himself back into his championship form.

Now training every day of the week with people ranging from college wrestlers at his alma mater of OSU, to professional boxers, Hendricks is trying to get back to his dominant form. This is largely due to the support of his wife as he gets back to, as he called it, being an athlete.

I have to become an athlete – I know it’s rough on [my wife] to do that… [but] this is how we make our living and I have to sacrifice

Knowing what Johny Hendricks in a completely dedicated training camp looks like, we are likely in for a show at UFC 207 on December 30th.

(16:30 mark)

Author Daniel Vreeland is a co-founder of the Top Turtle Podcast, and a purple belt in Jiu-Jitsu at New England Submission Fighting in Amherst, Massachusetts.