I juni stod det klart att den forne welterviktsmästaren Johny Hendricks beslutat att gå i pension från MMA, men förbereder sig nu för ett möte i bareknuckle fighting mot Bellator-fightern Brennan Ward, en fight utan handskar.
Hendricks berättar nu att detta troligtvis inte blir en engångsföreteelse och känner att han kan gå fler matcher inom bareknuckle.
Det här berättade han via ’The MMA Hour’:
Man, you know what? I have a feeling I could do it for a while.
My first coach ever in MMA, he was a bare-knuckle world champ in Thailand. … He showed me a lot of techniques, how to strengthen your hand and all of that kind of stuff, how you can actually punish the body and where to hit on the arms, this and this, what to look for. So I’m sort of going back to that stage as well, where to hit on the arms, how to make sure that after the first round — let’s say it goes past the first round — that he can no longer use his right arm because it hurts too bad, or his left arm, because I keep punishing it the way [I want to with] some of the game plans I have in my head already. Those things can help.
Hendricks berättar här vad han tänker inför mötet mot Ward och hur han måste anpassa sin stil.
I think what’s going to happen is he’s going to be looking to land that right hand, just as I’m looking to land my left hand. The only difference is that, with bare knuckle, you can’t throw as hard as you want to. It’s about accuracy, and that’s what really makes me excited about this, because I am a very accurate puncher. My accuracy is very well whenever it comes to seeing where the punch lands, where it needs to land, and sort of what comes next. … This is what [my coach Tony Cabello] has done forever. He grew up boxing.
Mötet äger rum i Casper Events Center i Wyoming 11 oktober.
