Former UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks had missed weight for three out of the past four events heading into UFC 217. He fought Kelvin Gastelum at a catchweight of 171.25 at UFC 200 on July 9, 2016, and lost. Instead of learning his lesson, he fought Neil Magny at a catchweight of 173.5 at UFC 207 on December 30, 2016, and lost.
Then Bigg Rigg moved up to middleweight and made weight vs. Hector Lombard Decision at UFC Fight Night 105 on February 19, 2017, and won. And then Hendricks fought Tim Boetsch at a catchweight of 188 at UFC Fight Night 112 on June 25, 2017. He lost.
So of his past four fights, Hendricks missed weight on three, and lost each of them. The sole win was when he made weight. Given the rigors of cutting and missing and cutting some more, the relationship between missing weight and losing may well not be a coincidence.
For UFC 217, Hendricks had to strip naked to make weight, but he explained beforehand to the media that he was not missing weight!
“I, so nobody writes a negative that, ‘Oh, you already had to strip, because he missed weight’, I misjudged last night that I thought I had some underwear that didn’t weigh anything,” explained Hendricks. “Well, I was wrong. So instead of losing 1.4 like I should have, I drank up 1.2, which was my fault. So I lost a 1.2, just not for the underwear count. Which means I should have lost 1.4, so I should have drank only one pound back. So all you media people, I didn’t miss weight. I just misread the underwear, okay? No negative! You hear me? No negative!”
Had a hard time following this. Gonna have to go back and listen. No negative stories, I know where you live, says Johny. pic.twitter.com/g8CJgkTSFz
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) November 3, 2017
While the explanation is a little hard to follow, try losing 15-20 pounds of water weight, and it will make sense. And if the pattern of making weight and winning continues, Hendricks made weight, and will win. The odds, however, have Borrachinha as a -320 favorite.
