Former UFC Welterweight Champion Johny Hendricks missed weight for his recent fight against Tim Boetsch at UFC Fight Night: Oklahoma City.
The former champion claims it was an illness that he accrued during the weight cut is what lead to the issues in the first place.
“Wednesday, something happened and I started running a fever. Thursday, Friday I’m sitting there going, ‘Oh my gosh.’ It’s funny because I love fans but I think that they’re the most ill-informed people and the reason that I say that is because if y’all are feeling sick, what do y’all do? If you are sick what do you get to do? You get to take a day off. My family was going through sickness for three weeks prior to the fight and I laughed because I didn’t get it. I was super excited. Awesome, nothing’s going on. Until you start cutting weight. I showed up and I think I was 13 [pounds] over and I drank 10 pounds of fluids that day and at that point you’re fighting not only the weight but also your body. It just sucks because 185 is not that hard to make but whenever you’re sick, it is. You’re body’s not gonna give up anything and the next thing you know, you’re trying to turn right around in 48 hours and fight for your life,” Hendricks said to Submission Radio.
In that fight against Boetsch, the former welterweight champion lost by second round TKO, it was his first loss at middleweight.
Hendricks doesn’t want fans to worry about his future at middleweight, because he says it is easy for him to make weight.
“185 is so easy to make. Right now if they said, ‘You have to fight next week,’ I could make it,” says Hendricks.
While Hendricks suffered his first loss at middleweight after missing weight, it was the third straight win for Boetsch.
