Inför helgens UFC Fight Night 112: Chiesa vs. Lee stod det klart att den tidigare welterviktsmästaren Johny Hendricks återigen missade vikten – trots att han har gått upp en viktklass och numera tävlar i mellanvikt.
”Bigg Rigg” vägde in på 188 pounds, alltså två pounds (0,9 kg) för mycket. Han gavs då en timme till att tappa den resterande vikten – men valde att inte ens försöka och fick istället böta 20 procent av sin lön till motståndaren Tim Boetsch, som nästa dag vann matchen via teknisk knockout med en välplacerad huvudspark och efterföljande slag.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1TiXPI-K34
Feber hindrade honom från att gå ner i vikt
Hendricks, som antingen missat vikten eller tvingats dra sig ur på grund av en misslyckad viktminskning totalt fyra gången vid det här laget, gav ingen omedelbar förklaring för viktmissen. Nu har han dock ställt upp på en intervju med Submission Radio, där han berättade att han var sjuk och hade feber dagarna innan invägningen vilket försvårade processen enormt.
“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,” sa Hendricks och fortsatte:
“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.”
Valet: Dra sig ur – eller missa vikten och underprestera
Hendricks menar att hans enda två val var att antingen dra sig ur matchen mot Boetsch – eller att missa vikten och dessutom inte kunna göra sitt allra bästa i buren. Han valde det sistnämnda. . .
“Whenever I was in there, things weren’t clicking like they should have. I saw a lot of openings, I got his timing down,” sa Hendricks. “The only thing he really hit me with was that push kick until he rocked me with that kick. . . Whenever I was sitting there, I thought I was still moving and my coach told me, ‘No, you literally just stood still.’ I really don’t know what I was thinking. Everything he did, I knew. I saw everything. There was nothing he could do and then he threw that high kick and finished it so kudos to him.”
Han fortsatte:
“It was just like, you’re running a 102 temperature for two days and you’re playing it that way. You’re running a high temperature and you’re trying to do everything you can. You’re not trying to kill fluids but you’re trying to keep your fluids up a little bit so that way you can fight it. I pretty much just told the commission, ‘Guys, I have to fight this fight.’ Then [the temperature] broke on Friday, late, late Friday like 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning and whenever it broke we tried to hit it hard to get that last little bit off but at that point my body was just saying, ‘Hey, we’re just trying to survive at this point.’
“Like I said, it’s not hard to make [1]85. That’s why I think it’s funny these people are like, ‘Oh he missed weight again.’ Well you know what, you have no idea. Any time you get sick you go to the hospital and what do they do? They put you in IVs and hydrate you up. Why? Because fluids help you fight the sickness. So that’s really what I was trying to do. I was trying not to put on a lot of weight [but also] if I don’t break that sickness, what do I do? Then I don’t get to fight. Then you just wasted 10 weeks of camp for nothing. So you’re in a catch 22.”
Lyssna på hela intervjun i videospelaren ovan!
