Johny Hendricks, a former UFC mixed martial arts welterweight champ, firmly believes that he won over Robbie Lawler and Georges St-Pierre when they went against each other at UFC 181 and UFC 167.
The ex-champ said that he is sure he out-struck St-Pierre and Lawler, beating the current champ by a margin of 2-1 by the end of the fourth round.
“You out-strike somebody, you pretty much win the fight, and something happens within the last 30 seconds of a fight, even if it doesn’t land, and you lose a fight? I don’t get it,” Hendricks said during an interview with the MMAjunkie. He was referring to Lawler’s last-minute strategy when they went against each other at UFC 181.
It wasn’t only Hendricks who thought he won the fight. Almost all major MMA websites, like MMAjunkie, all thought that Hendricks won the fight. They thought the title will go to him with winning three rounds to two, based on MMADecisions.com. Everybody thought the judges’ decision was a huge mistake.
Lawler, on the other hand, had a few people sided in his corner. Majority of the websites scored the fight on his corner, which was seen on MMADecisions.com, others disagreed, and the judges all scored against him.
The three judges didn’t always scored against Hendricks though. There was a time during UFC 171 when he went against Lawler for the title, which was vacated by St-Pierre, and it was a close fight even after his fifth-round rally.
This time around, the judges were able to make the right decision. Hendricks won by unanimous decision and finally received the welterweight title.
This picture really paints the big role of the judges in Hendricks’ career. Hendricks even said that he didn’t think the judges would play this massive role in his career.
He admitted that he can see this situation more clearly now that there’s one decision why he is left without a belt.
“I had no idea. I guess that’s being naive on my part, because if you beat me, I’m not going to sit there and say you didn’t; I can’t lie to myself like that. I’ve been beat a lot in my life, and whenever I get beat, I’m like, ‘You were better than me that day – how do I stop that from happening?’
“Now, you’re looking at, as a fighter, not only do you have to win the fight, you have to beat your opponent in judging as well. You’ve got to sit there and say, ‘What do they like to see? Whenever I rewatch those fights, it’s hard for me to even sit there and say, ‘What do they like?’ Because is it punches missing? Is that what I need to be doing? Is it not trying for a takedown? What would help me win these fights that I’ve lost? As of right now, I can’t figure it out,” he said.
Hendricks, who has a record of 17-3 MMA and 12-3 UFC, will be facing Tyron Woodley this coming Saturday at the UFC 192 PPV main card. The event will be held at Houston’s Toyota Center. His opponent, Woodley, has a record of 15-3 MMA, 5-2 UFC.