Hendricks: I wish GSP hadn’t returned
Johny Hendricks: “I wish he would’ve stayed out, but a competitor is always going to be a competitor, so we’ll see how he comes back.”
Johny Hendricks went 15-1 before his title fight with then welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. On November 16, 2013, Hendricks lost a highly controversial split decision to GSP. When Rush vacated the title, Hendricks beat Robbie Lawler in a fight of the year candidate and became UFC champion.
He has struggled since. Hendricks lost the belt in his first title defense, a rematch with Lawler. Then he lost to Stephen Thompson, Kelvin Gastelum, and Neil Magny, missing weight in the final two. He moved up to middleweight beating Hector Lombard in an entertaining fight in February.
Now St-Pierre is back. During a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, Hendricks was asked if he was surprised that GSP returned.
You know what, I am, said Hendricks, as transcribed by Danny Segura for MMA Fighting. I wish he would’ve stayed out, but a competitor is always going to be a competitor, so we’ll see how he comes back. And I heard he might be coming to 185.
I went through my rough period, I did something, and I was able to bounce back, where whenever he [St-Pierre] went through his rough period, he got out, and now look at these guys. Yeah, you can train, yeah, you can do these things, but has he done enough to come back as a different fighter? Time changes, it always does. Just like I said, one day the time is going to change where I’m not going to be able to compete with these guys anymore, it’s just the way that it is.
Once I showed how to defeat Georges St-Pierre, I think people are going to start using that game plan and it’s going to be so much harder on him. If you look at Chuck Liddell, you look at Randy Couture, these guys that didn’t stay out whenever they were on top, they came back and they weren’t the same fighters, you know. Three and a half years or two, whatever it is, is a long time for somebody to decrease or for everybody else to move up.
GSP has a fight with middleweight champion Michael Bisping, although the date has not been set. Hendricks’ next fight is not known.