When Johny Hendricks KO’d Martin Kampmann at UFC 154 he was convinced he had just earned himself a title shot against Georges St.Pierre.
And why not, after all he’d just put together an impressive five-fight winning streak, taking out other major names like Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck along the way, leaving him as the clear No.1 contender – on paper at least.
However,GSP has other ideas and he appears to have used his clout as the biggest draw in the sport to convince the UFC to give him a fight with Nick Diaz, a fight that was originally supposed to go down last year.
Needless to say Hendricks is less than pleased with that decision.
“It feels like you get your heart ripped out of you, “ Hendricks tells the InsideMMA show of his initial reaction to the news. “You do everything right and here the champ calls out somebody that hasn’t even fought in a year. It makes me mad that GSP could do something like that.”
As far as Hendricks is concerned, GSP is ducking him, and he believes that’s not how a champion should act.
“It seems like he doesn’t want to fight me. If your the champ you don’t go call out anybody – we all earn our spots and I earned my spot to fight against GSP and who knows, I might be able to beat him, I might not – but give me the chance. Don’t sit there and be afraid to step into the Octagon with me.”
Hendricks is perfectly entitled to blow off steam about this. If the system were fairer then he would undoubtedly be the man getting the next shot at the title, but unfortunately for him it’s been proven numerous times in the past that the UFC doesn’t always follow the rulebook in this regard.
I can’t deny that I’m looking forward to the spectacle of GSP Vs Diaz, and given that they were originally scheduled to fight last year it does feel like unfinished business, but at the same time while it’s not as glamorous of a bout, with Hendricks bone-crushing KO power and wrestling he could well end up providing the tougher test for the champion.
Watch Hendricks full rant on InsideMMA below.
