Thursday, November 20, 2008

Josh Hendricks: Out but not Down

Originally posted on FightersOnlyMagazine.com

osh Hendricks (15-4) made his UFC debut at UFC 91 last Saturday, losing to heavyweight title contender Gabriel Gonzaga by KO in the first round.

Shortly afterwards, the UFC told him they were releasing him from his contract to gain more experience before he will be offered another fight in the organisation.

Fighters Only: In and out after just one fight is very unlucky. How did they break it to you?

They didn’t have a whole lot to say. They are going to get back to me in the next couple of months and we will see what happens.

Fighters Only: Gonzaga is an incredibly tough opponent for your UFC debut. How did the fight come about?

They offered and I said yes. Obviously I wasn’t going to turn anything down, I had been trying to get in there for so long.

But things just didn’t work out the way I wanted them to. The situation was kind of... they weren’t expecting a whole lot of me, but at the same time I was expecting a lot of myself and it just didn’t happen.

Fighters Only: It seemed like the nerves got to you. Did you get big-stage jitters?

Yeah, I did actually. I thought that I would have myself prepared for it but there were things that came up that I wasn’t expecting to affect me so much.

The crowd, the lights, hearing Joe Rogan’s voice in person, it all just kind of added up and got the better of me before I could get it back in control.

Fighters Only: Have you ever fought in front of a big crowd like that before?

I fought in front of a pretty big King Of The Cage crowd and another big crowd in Moscow, but nothing quite on the grand scale of the UFC, there is nothing really that compares to that.

Fighters Only: Was it surreal to be watching the UFC all these years and then suddenly you find yourself walking down that tunnel?

Absolutely, you try and put yourself there as many times as you can and then when you walk to the cage and you see the logos on the floor and the people around, and you’re staring across at Gabriel Gonzaga... it was a bit intimidating, to be very honest with you.

Fighters Only: You worked out at Xtreme Couture prior to the fight. Did Randy give you some good tips for Gonzaga based on his own experiences with him?

Yeah, we had a good gameplan figured out and I just didn’t execute it was all it was out.

Gonzaga was really strong, a lot stronger than I thought he was going to be, and I just didn’t feel that I had the weight and the strength to push him around and impose my will on him.

Click here to read the entire article at FightersOnlyMagazine.com

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