Photo/Zuffa LLC via Getty ImagesUFC fighter Johny Hendricks is one of the world's top welterweights. The former Oklahoma State wrestler is 11-1 and ranked No. 8 in the InterMatFight welterweight rankings.
Hendricks is preparing for his Dec. 30 fight at UFC 141 in Las Vegas against No. 2 Jon Fitch, who has gone 13-1-1 in the UFC dating back to 2005, with his only loss coming to Georges St. Pierre during that span.
InterMatFight caught up with the 28-year-old Hendricks and talked to him about his upcoming fight against Fitch and what the keys will be to coming out on top, what his loss to Rick Story did to him, what he thinks of Josh Koscheck and Ben Askren, whether he thinks he would have a wrestling advantage if he fought GSP, and much more.
The Jon Fitch fight is a little less than a month away. How is your training going for that fight?
Hendricks: It's been going great. I've been training my butt off. I went back to my old wrestling ways ... running and training hard the whole time, instead of some of the time. I'm pretty excited. I want to see what my shape is like and how I feel. I can't wait to see what I can do out there.
You are one of the most accomplished wrestlers in MMA. I heard you say after your last fight that you needed to sharpen your wrestling skills. How much emphasis have you put on your wrestling since your last fight?
Hendricks: A lot. That's one of my main focuses ... just getting back to the basics. It's nice to knock people out. But one thing I've noticed is the higher you get up, the tougher the guys get. The tougher the guys get, the harder it is to finish them. So you've got to find more ways to damage them.
Who is your wrestling coach?
Hendricks: I go back to Oklahoma State to work with John Smith. I've been up there two and a half weeks during the last two months. To me that is a lot ... because for three and a half years I didn't do any of it. I didn't even like drilling wrestling. Now I know that I've got to become a more complete fighter. The more I get back to that, the more offense I'll have and the more comfortable I'll be. Now I can take people down. That's one thing I have been working on. It's been nice to get away from just the standup aspect. It gives me more tools to learn and learning is always fun for me.
I heard you say after your last fight that you have not been excited about your previous fights, but that you would be excited about your next fight. What excites about fighting Jon Fitch?
Hendricks: That's it ... Nobody is excited to fight him. He's a straightforward guy. He's going to come in and throw a couple punches, but his main focus is getting you to the cage and taking you down, or taking you down in the open and putting you to your back. He wants to keep the fight on the ground. That's where he feels most comfortable. I feel like I have what it takes to beat that. I've gone with strong wrestlers and they haven't really had a good chance at taking me down, and if they did take me down, it's because I wasn't focusing on it. I fought Mike Pierce last. He's a lot like Jon Fitch, but with heavier hands. Pierce is a strong guy. I don't know if Fitch is going to be as strong, but I feel like I handled myself very well against his takedown, so now I'm just excited to see what I do with Fitch.
What are the keys to beating Jon Fitch?
Hendricks: You have to keep your back off the cage. A lot of people have had opportunities to beat him in the past ... and what they did was crowd certain positions and give Fitch a chance to reverse them, or end up getting taken down. I've wrestled long, lanky guys, more than most, so now I know whenever he is trying to use that length I have to be able to feel it. A lot of the guys I'm wrestling are 174, 184, and 197-pounders at Oklahoma State with long reaches, long arms ... tall and long. So that way I can feel when they're going to come in and hit the shots.
What did that loss to Rick Story do to you?
Hendricks: It did everything for my career and me personally. I was content with where I was at. I didn't think the big time would ever come. I just kept fighting, I kept fighting, I kept grinding, I kept grinding ... and I didn't think I would ever get to where I am now. After that loss, that's when my mind switched. I was like, 'Crap, I was right there ... You've got to be kidding me.' That's when I made the switch to training harder because I was so mad that I was right there and it slipped away.
After you lost to Rick Story, what aspects of your game did you need to address the most?
Hendricks: My clinch game. That was one big part of it. And also just being able to stay off the cage. Rick Story was able to put me against the cage in that fight. That's one thing I can't let Jon Fitch do.
When you were a college wrestler at Oklahoma State, you were somewhat of a polarizing, controversial figure. That does not seem to be the case in MMA. Why not?
Hendricks: Because people like me smiling. They like me having fun out there. They look at me as not being an arrogant person like the wrestling world did. They look at me as a guy who just enjoys fighting. That's the way I was in the wrestling game. It's just about having fun out there. If I wasn't having fun out there, I didn't want to do it.
Do you think some of the animosity toward you as a college wrestler was because your team, Oklahoma State, was on top?
Hendricks: That's it too. Wearing the orange and black singlet never hurts. I think that If I would have worn an Iowa singlet, they would have loved me. That's just the way it goes. I wouldn't change it for the world because it helped mold me into the person that I am today.
If you beat Jon Fitch and the UFC doesn't give you a title fight, do you have a preference on who you would like to fight?
Hendricks: No. Right now I haven't even thought that way. I don't want to think that way because I have a month left of training to prepare for this one. I don't want to start thinking, 'Who can I fight next?' My main focus is just to get as much training as I can and prepare for this fight. The day after this fight I'll sit down with my managers and see where we go from there.
You and Josh Kocheck were both NCAA Division I wrestling champions. Now you are both top contenders in the same division. What do you think of Koscheck as a fighter?
Hendricks: I think he's tough. He knows what works for him. He's got a nice overhand right. It works. I think he is developing a little bit more as a fighter. Just as I'm looking at myself, he's probably looking at himself and realizing that you can't just go in there and try to finish everybody. So I think he's still developing as a fighter, which is always good. He's a tough cat.
Speaking of NCAA champion wrestlers, Ben Askren is the Bellator welterweight champion. Have you been able to follow his career much?
Hendricks: I've watched some of his fights. Have I followed it? No. I try not to focus on one fighter. I watch a lot of fights. I watch every pay-per-view, every Spike. I try to watch every Bellator. I try to watch every Strikeforce. I watch so many different fights. Because what I try to do is whenever I see a fighter and I like their style, I try to mimic it. I try to see if I can use that. So I don't really focus too much on one fighter ... Sometimes I'll be watching a fight and I'll be like, 'Hey, I'd do that, and the guy is getting his butt kicked.' I'm like, 'Oh, man, I need to stop doing that.' So it works both ways.
Georges St. Pierre is considered one of the best wrestlers in the UFC despite not ever wrestling competitively. Are pure wrestling skills different from MMA wrestling skills?
Hendricks: Oh yeah. You put me in a stance and I don't have to worry about punches or anything, have fun trying to get to my legs. That's just the way that it is. Even a below average wrestler can be good as long as he can make you think that's he going to punch you in the face and he's actually going for the takedown. Even if he doesn't get the takedown, he can drive you against the cage. Now your hips and everything else that you're used to using in folkstyle wrestling is not the same against the cage. You're not able to sprawl. You don't have an out of bounds and are able to go and reset. Everything is caged in there. It's just totally different.
Whenever I go back to Oklahoma State, they're like, 'How are you getting taken down? Why are wrestlers always getting taken down?' I go, 'Come here. Get against the wall and I'll show you. Just tell me when you want me to start.' I let them fight for a couple minutes and then I just lift them up and put them down on the ground. I'm like, 'You've got to learn different hip pressures' ... In wrestling you don't need to learn it ... You need to know how to sprawl and all that kind of stuff. You don't need to worry about getting off the wall. They're like, 'Man, that was way harder.' And everybody would be laughing. The fact of the matter is, it's easier to get taken down when you can't actually sprawl, stuff their head, and have to worry about getting put into a cage.
If you fought GSP, who would have the wrestling advantage?
Hendricks: Man, I think that I've got the wrestling strength. I think it has come back to me. I would have to say me now ... because I've actually focused on it. I would never give anyone an advantage, even if I'm fighting the best wrestler in the world. I would always believe that I'm going to be the better wrestler just because I know what I have been through and I know what I would focus on. If I'm fighting GSP, I'm going to focus a little bit more on the wrestling, not so much on the standup ... because that's the way he fights. He's going to throw a couple of shots, just like Jon Fitch. He wants that takedown because that's how he wins. He gets them on the ground, passes their guard, and controls them.
Your teammate Jake Rosholt is on a hot streak. What does he need to do to get back in the UFC?
Hendricks: Man, I don't even know. I thought after that last win it would push him in there. I guess he needs to go out and get one or two more big wins.
Describe how the emotions differ between wrestling on the elevated mat in the NCAA finals and wrestling in the Octagon for a UFC fight.
Hendricks: It's quite a bit different. In NCAA wrestling, I knew that I had to win. I knew that I had everything to win. In the UFC, you might touch gloves and the guy gets a lucky hit and you're out of a fight. You have no control over that. The only things you can control in a fight are your mental state, your heart, and your cardio.
Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, Johny. Is here anything else that you want to add?
Hendricks: I want to thank God. I want to thank my family and friends, and definitely my wife for putting up with me. Without a good wife behind you, it's hard to do what you really want to do. I'm just grateful for that. I'm just grateful that God blessed me with the abilities to do what I do.
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