Johny Hendricks reveals that the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) played a role in his decision to leave the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Hendricks is a former UFC welterweight champion. At the height of his career, many viewed Hendricks a devastating power puncher, who could fall back on his wrestling at any time. Many believe he was robbed of a decision win in his title bout against Georges St-Pierre. Unfortunately for “Big Rigg,” he ended up having one of the quickest downfalls in UFC history.
Johny Hendricks Reveals USADA Played a Role in Decision to Leave UFC
After going 1-5 in his last six outings, Hendricks decided to call it a career for MMA. He will be making his debut for the Bare Knuckle Fighting Federation on Nov. 9. During a recent appearance on MMAFighting.com‘s “The MMA Hour,” Hendricks explained how USADA played a role in his UFC departure:
“I think USADA’s a great thing for the athletes, because it’s making people be clean, right? I took 26 tests, never failed one of the them. And that was in two years; I took 26 tests, never failed one of them. But what hurts the MMA aspect is that you can’t [use] IV bags. So, I’m a bigger welterweight, I walk around at 210. I’ve done that since I was 19 years old, walk around at 210, and the IV always brought me back. It helped me get back to life, it helped me get to where I didn’t feel like I cut weight. And once USADA come into play, I had to start walking around like 190 at best, and as you can tell, I do carry a lot of weight … and that’s sort of one reason why it just made it that much harder to make weight at 170.”
Do you think Johny Hendricks could’ve found a way around having to use IV bags to perform well at welterweight?
