Hendricks leaves Team Takedown

The sport is rapidly moving towards super camps, with mutli-discipline, world-class coaches, contenders in a variety of weights, and even medical personnel on staff.

In an unusual move, Johny Hendricks appeared recently on MMAjunkie Radio, and announced he is moving in another direction. He is leaving Team Takedown, and after that, well, it is unclear.

The split may be related to the highly unusual contract the fighter had. He received full support early in his career, and in return, gave up 50% of his purse.

The fighter will retain the services of boxing coach Tony Cabello, and said he will “probably” lose the rest of the coach staff, but noted that two coaches, unnamed, had reached out. It is not known if head coach Marc Laimon is among them.

Hendricks is a multi-time NCAA Division I national champion at collegiate wrestling powerhouse Oklahoma State University, and still wrestled there regularly when he was part of Team Takedown. That will remain.

Hendricks still wants to fight TyronWoodley at welterweight. Following his botched weight cut, there was some question as to whether the UFC would allow him to stay at 170, but he has secured the services of nutritionist Louis Giordano, and so the UFC will allow him to stay at welterweight. He is currently at 202, but plans to be 193-195 by the time he starts his camp.

I still have OSU, said Hendricks, as transcribed by Steven Marrocco for MMAjunkie. As long as I can still go to OSU and my boxing coach … now all I have to do is find a place where I can roll and do some ground work.

(Team Takedown) has done a great job with me for the last eight years. We just couldn’t come to an agreement on certain things, and it was time for me to pull away.

I would like to do (UFC 196 on) Feb. 6. I don’t know if they’ve got a main event yet, but as of right now, that’s where my head’s at.

I’ve got to wait until I get cleared out of my management (his contract ends in Feb of 2016). As soon as we break clean, that’s whenever it will give me a better understanding. As of right now, that’s what I’m shooting for. But if they say no, we want to keep you until February, I’ll probably have to fight early March.

The (coaches) who have contacted me, if they want to work with me and be the best we can be, then that’s what it is. But at that point, they’ll probably have to choose if they want to stay with Team Takedown or follow me, and I don’t like putting those kind of stipulations on people. I want them to be happy and do the best thing for them.

Let’s pull back, move forward, and get it done. We’re going to have a great future, and we’re going to get back to where we want to be.

If he does, it will be a surprise, as the days of a boxing coach holding mitts in a wrestling room are pretty far behind us.