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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Despite earning the right to call himself the No. 1 contender to the UFC Welterweight Title, there's every chance Johny Hendricks could miss out on a fight with Georges St-Pierre once again. UFC President Dana White said this week that St-Pierre would be given a choice between Hendricks and UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva, and if Hendricks isn't chosen, he feels St-Pierre should forfeit his title.
"That's what I've been preaching for the last six to eight months," he said in an interview with MMAJunkie.com. "I want to fight GSP because I'm a competitor. I want to fight the best guys in my weight class. But also, the belt is more important than GSP, and that's really what I'm looking at."
"If he wants to go to 185 then by all means, go to 185 and fight Anderson Silva. Yes, it would be a great thing for our sport. But I want the belt. I'd like to fight GSP for it, but if that doesn't happen, I'm not going to hang my head and say, 'Oh man, I'm going to be fighting that guy for the belt.'"
Hendricks also isn't happy that the UFC seems to be waiting for the Silva-Weidman fight to determine what's next for St-Pierre, when he'd rather get back into the cage right now.
"I don't want to wait three months," Hendricks said. "What if Anderson Silva doesn't win? Chris Weidman is a very tough dude, a very good wrestler, and he's very tough on top. He beats him, well now we've been pushed to three months when we could have been fighting maybe a month after him. Now, we've got to wait another four months to prepare for our fight, so we're looking at December. I want to be able to fight in September, October, or even August."
"I don't mind that he goes for Anderson Silva. I understand why he would. I don't know if he has a good chance to win, but if that's what makes him say, 'Hey, I really want to do that,' go for it. I just don't want to be sitting here fighting for No. 1 contender spots while he's doing that."
Penick's Analysis: Hendricks has gotten a really raw deal through the entire process surrounding St-Pierre. He got passed over for Nick Diaz, he won another fight to clearly become No. 1 contender, and now he once again has to wait to find out whether or not he'll be fighting for the Title. It's a fight he's earned, but he's in the unfortunate position of having no leverage to control his own destiny here. That's an unenviable spot to be in, but it's where he is nonetheless, and all he can do is wait.
[GSP art by Travis Beaven (c) MMATorch.com]
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Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_16510.shtml
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