Johny Hendricks says he’s not afraid to strike with Stephen Thompson in their upcoming fight at UFC Fight Night 82. Hendricks recently spoke with FoxSports.com to promote the welterweight fight, and feels that people underestimate his abilities as a striker. Here’s what he had to say:
“Everybody who said they were a better striker than me, I’ve beat them. Carlos Condit has better striking than you. Guess where I beat him? On the feet. Martin Kampmann has better striking than you. I beat him on the feet. Robbie Lawler has better boxing. I beat him on the feet. Whenever I hear people sit there and say ‘he’s a better striker than you’, I’m like really? Why do you think he’s a better striker than me? Because he did karate for his whole entire life? Who cares… I’m looking at this fight as a title fight. Because if I lose this fight I have to do two more to get back to where I want to be. So this is my title fight and everyone from here on out is going to be that. Whenever I look at him, I do know this is the best Stephen Thompson I’m going to fight because if he beats me, he might be able to get a title shot. So I need to make sure I’m focused on the task at hand and that’s why we’re saying one fight at a time. I just want to make sure I’m focused on him because if I start focusing too much on the title, then I lose focus on him. You don’t make it into the top 10 without being somebody so I know it’s going to be a tough fight. I can’t wait.”
UFC Fight Night 82 takes place this Saturday (February 6th) in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. The main card starts on FOX Sports 1 at 10 PM ET, after the prelims at 8 PM. Earlier prelims air on UFC Fight Pass at 6 PM ET.
