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Johny Hendricks: Willing to Fight Anyone but Laughs at Jake Shields' Challenge

Johny Hendricks: Willing to Fight Anyone but Laughs at Jake Shields' Challenge
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Johny Hendricks: Willing to Fight Anyone but Laughs at Jake Shields' Challenge | Bleacher Report

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UFC top welterweight contender Johny Hendricks said he is still holding out hope that his next fight will be for the title. Hendricks said he'd sign up for a non-title fight, but has no interest in fighting Jake Shields, whose recent Twitter challenge he said he found amusing.

Hendricks said Monday on The MMA Hour broadcast with host Ariel Helwani:

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I laugh. He doesn't advance my cause at all. My cause is to be a number one contender. I think he was 2-2 in the UFC at 170. What he's trying to do, I don't blame him. I have a target on my back. And I like that position. But I just want the belt in my hand.

Hendricks said he is still hoping to face GSP next, though he won't necessarily refuse a different opponent:

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Saying I don't want anything less [than a title shot] is not a disrespect to anyone else, but you see the light at the end of the tunnel, and then someone tries to send you a curveball. But if there's someone else I have to fight, I leave that to my manager and Joe Silva...But I'm really, really hoping that it's GSP, maybe in April, maybe in May. We'll see.

Shields' tweet, since deleted but available here, advised Hendricks to "quit crying...and fight me next" after Hendricks expressed disappointment after being apparently passed over for a welterweight title shot, despite winning three straight over top contenders.

St-Pierre purportedly told the UFC he would prefer to face Nick Diaz next. Diaz is currently serving a suspension and will be available to fight in February. In his last bout, Diaz lost to Carlos Condit, whom St-Pierre defeated at UFC 154.

Hendricks said he would blame St-Pierre, not the UFC, if Diaz received the next title shot:

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GSP came to them...Give me that shot. If I win, awesome. And they can still fight. And if I lose, then they can still fight.

Hendricks dismissed the idea that Diaz's persistent taunting of St-Pierre (and, presumably, the high level of interest such a grudge match would create) justifies Diaz receiving the fight:

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[Diaz] is on suspension and I'm actually fighting to get my title shot. I'm more mad at GSP for calling somebody else out. I think [GSP] is trying to stay away from me. What other reason is there? I've tried to analyze it every other way. Other than that, it would just be because [Diaz] talked trash. But who cares? I train with guys who talk trash to me every single day...Who cares about the past? You have unfinished business? Well so do I. GSP takes it away from me, so now I have unfinished business with GSP.

I hate that he's being skipped over, although I'm not really sold on him.

Given Hendricks current position I think he should be able to have say in which opponent he fights next if he gets screwed out of the GSP fight.

If anyone had reason to cry about being passed over it's Jon Fitch, STFU cry baby and keep winning you'll get your turn to lose.

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Originally Posted by Qball1974 (Post 991106)

If anyone had reason to cry about being passed over it's Jon Fitch, STFU cry baby and keep winning you'll get your turn to lose.

Very true, Fitch got fucked in a bad way.

if he's going to take another fight, why not take on GSP's boy Rory McDonald to send a message?

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Originally Posted by Qball1974 (Post 991106)

If anyone had reason to cry about being passed over it's Jon Fitch, STFU cry baby and keep winning you'll get your turn to lose.

He won some boring decisions to lesser opponents, had a draw with with BJ then got KTFO. He was close to earning the title shot, but he lost to Hendricks. Right now he's not even close to getting a title shot.

Fitch needs to fight Kampmann.

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Originally Posted by Fe1 (Post 991119)

Not sure what your getiing at. Fitch's has a record 100 times better and he still had to wiat. It's a fight game and $$ talks!

After Fitch got mauled by GSP, he beat Akihiro Gono, Paulo Thiago, Mike Pierce, Ben Saunders, and Thiago Alves

That's 4 guys who weren't in the top 25, and then he beat a top 10 in Thiago Alves. He then had a draw with BJ Penn, who didn't crack the top 10 yet, as he just KO'ed Matt Hughes, and then he got KO'ed by Hendricks.

Hendricks, on the other hand, is 14-1 (9-1 in the UFC), is on a 5 fight win streak, with his last 3 being all top 5 opponents in Fitch, Koscheck and Martin Kampann. Two of those he KO'ed.

To me that's much more impressive than Fitch's record.

People can predict that GSP is going to beat Hendricks, or going to kill Hendricks, or whatever, but that still does not change the fact that Hendricks is the most deserving contendor to the title in any single division period.

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Originally Posted by Dr. MMA (Post 991142)

Well said.